r/westcoasteagles

One of the more frustrating games of the year. From being the clear dominant team in the first quarter only to go into quarter time 1 point down due to a freak goal with literally 1 second left on the clock, to spending the next two quarters kicking 10 behinds in a row while GWS seemed to slot absolutely everything. Final quarter was better, but the damage was well and truly done at that point. Oh well, only 4 more quarters to go.

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Our Attack:

** **	Chain to Score	D50 to F50	D50 to Score	Def Half to F50	Def Half to Score
Eagles	20.8	26.5	11.8	32.8	18.0
Eagles Ave	19.5	18.0	8.1	28.2	11.7
League Ave	21.8	23.5	10.3	32.1	13.6

Possibly lost amongst our poor entries and shocking accuracy was the fact that our offensive transition was actually brilliant. Every metric was above our usual average, and nearly all of them where above the league average too. This is one of our best results for the year quite easily. That translated into an impressive 53 inside 50s with 49.9% time in forward half. When we went inside 50, we actually had 13 marks inside 50, which at 24.5% is actually slightly above league average. We also had an efficiency of 41.5% which is not too bad actually. Kicking 10 points in a row between quarter 1 and 4 really killed any possible score board pressure we could mount.

Strangely, our offensive was actually really good and if we didn’t kick so poorly, we might’ve been able to put up a big score.

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Our Defence:

** **	Chain to Score	D50 to F50	D50 to Score	Def Half to F50	Def Half to Score
Giants	29.2	22.9	12.5	36.1	26.4
Giants Ave	21.3	25.6	11.9	32.4	13.8
League Ave	21.8	23.5	10.3	32.1	13.6

We all knew this was coming. Possibly the only surprising thing to come out of these numbers is that it wasn’t our worst result of the year. Now in actuality 60% of those results aren’t that awful, but the other two are monumentally bad. Letting GWS score from nearly a third of all their chains is disastrous, and yet it isn’t even the worst result. The worst result by far was that we let them score from their defensive half at nearly double the league average, conceding 10.9 (69) points from defensive half. Part of this stemmed from our lack of ability to restrict them to under 100 uncontested marks, they had 112, and the other stemmed from us only laying 55 tackles to their 60. They had the same number of inside 50s as us (53) and when they went inside they took a whopping 19 marks (35.8%), and had a ludicrously high scoring efficiency of 58.5%. We where truly destroyed in every single area of defence today.

Absolutely deplorable.

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Our Midfield:

** **	CBA	CC	CC/CBA
Billiams	25	2	0.08
Kelly	24	5	0.21
Oliver	23	3	0.13
Coniglio	21	1	0.05
Reid	21	3	0.14
Rowston	20	1	0.05
Yeo	20	2	0.10
Madden	14	0	0.00
Briggs	13	2	0.15
Graham	11	1	0.09
Stone	10	1	0.10
Greene	4	0	0.00
Delana	3	0	0.00
Duursma	3	0	0.00
Duff-Tytler	2	0	0.00
Hough	2	0	0.00

TK was far and away the best centre bounce player this week, being served the ball on a platter from BBW time and time again. Harls was also quite solid and from there we shared the centre clearances around pretty evenly. Final tally shows that we dominated in the middle with 13 centre clearances to 8 while the rest of the stats were quite even but all in GWS’ favour. Stoppage clearances were 27-25, contested possessions were 124-120, and ground ball gets were 80-78. Centre clearances are king so I still think we got the better of them by the slightest of margins.

** **	CBA	Tackles	Pressure Acts	-	CBA	Tackles	Pressure Acts
Billiams	25	2	10	Oliver	23	2	10
Kelly	24	3	16	Coniglio	21	6	13
Reid	21	5	17	Rowston	20	5	17
Yeo	20	4	13	Madden	14	6	14
Graham	11	8	25	Briggs	13	3	12
Duursma	3	2	16	Stone	10	2	18
** **	104	24	97		101	24	84

Defensively we were completely awful, but centre bounce crew can hold their heads high. We matched the GWS mids in tackles and even beat them out on pressure. Graham in particular deserves a big pat on the back for laying a third of those tackles.

Overall, a pretty good result for the midfield.

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So where did we lose? Have you been reading?

If you’ve skipped right here, go back and read the section about our defence. That’s where we lost. There’s absolutely zero room for doubting that. I know everyone is sick of hearing this, but we really were competitive in every other stat this week. We had the exact same inside 50 count and the exact same time in forward half (okay, GWS had 50.1%). The key factor is that they had a scoring efficiency of 58.5% and we had 41.5%. Game over.

It doesn’t really have any bearing on anything but one amusing stat is that GWS had 715 metres gained by handballs this game. We had 1.

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The BOG Candidates:

Bailey Williams: 11 touches and 11 contested possessions for 2 centre clearances and 5 stoppage clearances. A real tough bastard performance but he was actually even better in the ruck. Sporting a 47.6% hitout win rate but more impressively a 38.5% hitout to advantage rate with 15 total. Monstered Briggs so badly that they had to change to Madden. Clear best on ground.

Tim Kelly: Highest possession getter this week with 28 and while he’s recently been playing a bit more outside, he was locked inside today and was brilliant. 16 of touches were contested with 11 coming from ground ball gets leading to a game high 5 centre clearances (8 total), and a game high 8 inside 50s.

Harley Reid: Wasn’t doing his usual pack breaking, flashy plays, but his work in the contest was elite as always. Last week he set the club record for having 15+ contested possessions 7 games in a row, and I’m happy to say that he had 15 again this week to bring the streak up to 8 games. Had a game high 8 clearances which almost goes without saying nowadays, and backed it up with 5 tackles and 17 pressure acts.

Jack Graham: Even though he only had 11 CBAs for the day, it felt like Fridge spent a lot more time in the guts than normal and he paid us back in kind. 26 disposals with 14 contested, 5 clearances, and to the surprise of no one, game highs for both tackles (8) and pressure acts (25).

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Great:

Tylar Young: On a day where our backline was truly awful, Young was the one bloke who made it out without a single blemish. Not only did he have 18 disposals at 100%, he also had 3 contested one on ones at 100%. Even more impressive when you factor in that no other Eagle won more than one.

Jake Waterman: Probably easy to miss in a 54 point loss, and while he did kick 2.3 again, he was a big presence in the forward line and the only key forward doing much of anything. Had the most score involvements on the team with 8, including a goal assist, but unfortunately, it’s another “Imagine if it was 5 straight” game.

Tom Cole: Easily the best player on the ground at quarter time with 1 goal and 2 brilliant goal assists. Completely faded from the game after that (not entirely his fault), but at the end of the day he was still directly involved in nearly half of our goals hence his rank.

Liam Baker: Cole was the best player on the ground at quarter time, but Bakes was a deserving second place. Exactly the same as Coley though as he completely faded from the game, but again, with 2 goals and 1 goal assist, his short lived impact was still brilliant.

Milan Murdock: The goat had 13 touches this week at a surprisingly good 92.3%. He kicked the 1 goal and had 1 goal assist and was electric up the ground, being one of best transition players for the day finishing with 7 score involvements.

Tom McCarthy: Finished with team high metres gained again this week with 554m, which I normally don’t comment on since they’re normally just from kick ins, but with only 3 kick ins this week and an efficiency of 81.8% it’s actually a very good indicator of his ball movement this week. Not content with his great ball movement, he also notched 5 tackles and won a rare contested one on one. The other defender who can hold his head high.

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Good:

Tom Gross: - Not as good as his game last week with only 9 touches, but I thought his pressure really stood out. He had 4 really good tackles and 16 pressure acts, often in the back half of the ground where you could always see him running hard to cut off GWS transition.

Elliot Yeo: After two great weeks in a row, Yeoy had another down one, but thankfully nowhere near as down as before. He had 18 touches with 10 contested, 5 clearances, and 4 tackles. Pretty good, but he definitely wasn’t great.

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Okay:

Marcus Herbert: A quiet day by his standards with only 14 touches but when he did get the ball, he was pretty good with it. You could make the argument to bump him up a tier, but I think he just didn’t get enough of it to be damaging.

Brandon Starcevich: Had a couple genuinely really good moments, but just a couple, and for the most part he was just sort of disappointing. When the backline was getting completely jumped, he was nowhere to be seen and that’s really a cardinal sin for a guy who was brought in to lead the younger defenders.

Rhett Bazzo: At first glance, he did pretty decent with 7 intercept possessions, and a team high 5 spoils, but his work on Cadman was a disasterclass, gifting him 3 uncontested marks inside 50. Ball movement did him no favours, but I still thought his bodywork was disappointing.

Jobe Shanahan: Took a mark of the year contended which is pretty neat, but didn’t do a whole lot more. Notably had 4 spoils for the match and was very good at getting the ball to ground when he wasn’t in position to take a mark. Just did enough to save him from a lower rank.

Hamish Davis: Worked his arse off for absolutely no reward whatsoever. Had just the 6 touches, but 3 tackles and one of our rare contested one on one wins. Hard to say if his running patterns need work, or if he was just overlooked at every opportunity.

Cooper Duff-Tytler: Being a bit generous with this one. Didn’t have the impact he would’ve liked due to missing 2 goals when he definitely should’ve kicked at least one, but with 3 inside 50s, a reasonable day in the ruck, 2 marks inside 50, 2 tackles, and 3 spoils, I don’t think he was bad, just a bit invisible.

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Bad:

Brady Hough: Had some moments, but with just the 8 touches for the game, he was pretty unremarkable. A really shocking stat line for a player who’s way better than that.

Jack Williams: He had 10 disposals and I almost considered moving him up to just okay, but kicking 0.2 cemented him down here.

Josh Lindsay: Actually was pretty good with ball in hand today but, as I’ve mentioned a couple times, his defensive work is just abysmal. There was one passage of play where he stood 25m clear in between two Giants’ players which lead to a goal. Got a lot to learn as a defender.

Willem Duursma: Very clearly tiring at the end of his first year, which is completely understandable. Just the 6 touches and weirdly, a contested one on one win. A bad game, but easy to look past.

Liam Duggan: You’d be forgiven if you forgot he even played this game. 13 touches at 46.2% with 5 turnovers, 2 times he was too slow to stop a goal, 0 spoils, 0 one on ones, and only 2 score involvements. No idea what he brings to the team, but I’ve said that a million times and I’ll leave it at that.

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Stat Leaders:

Eagles who topped the game in a particular stat. Brackets show the best player from the opposite team.

Bailey Williams - 17.6 Rating Points (Ash 16.8)

Tim Kelly - 8 Inside 50s (Greene 7)

Bailey Willaims - 15 Hitouts to Advantage (Madden 5)

Tim Kelly & Harley Reid - 5 & 3 Centre Clearances (Oliver 3)

Bailey Williams & Harley Reid - 5 & 5 Stoppage Clearances (Briggs 5)

Harley Reid & Tim Kelly & Bailey Williams - 8 & 8 & 7 Total Clearances (Briggs 7)

Jake Waterman - 5 Shots at Goal (Greene 5)

Jack Graham - 8 Tackles (Coniglio 6)

Harley Reid - 2 Tackles Inside 50 (Greene 2)

Jack Graham - 25 Pressure Acts (Greene 21)

14 Stat Leaders (+2 from last week) (6 Draws)

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Wuurm Watcher

Hamish Davis & Jack Graham - 9.6km/h & 9.6km/h Average Speed (Delana 9.5km/h)

Hamish Davis - 28 Sprints (Brown 28)

Hamish Davis - 5 Repeated Sprints (Thomas 4)

Hamish Davis & Milan Murdock & Tom Gross & Jack Graham & Marcus Herbert - 9.9km/h & 9.7km/h & 9.4km/h & 9.3km/h & 9.2km/h Average Speed in Attack (No Giants Listed)

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It was a game where we seemed to lose every fifty fifty and as a result, I think the 54 point margin flattered the Giants in the end. Expected score had it as a 33 point loss which feels about right to me. Not that that makes it much better. Our defence was truly terrible, but the good news is that we have Ginbey and (hopefully) Edwards to come back into the line up and the rest of team actually did pretty well. With just one game against Hawthorn left, I can’t be the only one counting down the quarters to the finish line. See you there

Innocent until proven guilty and all that but looks like he's been named in whatever went down over there.

Hey all, i attended the GWS - WCE game and - unfortunately for me spent most of the game wondering what was going on .

Because 90% of the time, the game was played on the other side of the ground. Could hardly see who was who..

To put it into perspective, when i read the stats after the game, Mcarthy getting 22 touches - i didn't see him all day. Or on the flipside, poor davis only getting a handful of touches? yer he played on the wing closest to us.

I was just curious if anyone knows why? It was the shaded part, so my only theory was to keep the sun from getting in your eyes, but the sun was more across the ground, rather than down it.

anyone know why it was played on one side so much?

Two things stand out for me - apart from fundamental skills errors and they start at ‘expectations and standards’ which have been fundamentally forgotten about at this club.

1. The list has not been maintained adequately and

2. Players fitness is sub par
   Let me explain:

3. List management: no accounts were taken for aging stars back when we should’ve been looking forward ie. JK, Gov, Hurn, Shuey etc
   These blokes left a huge hole that has STILL not been filled. This should’ve been identified long before this predicament we now find ourselves in via list management and risk assessments.
   Look at Brissy and Geelong - have all remained successful. Brissy recruited the forwards, Geelong the backs and mids.

This is a board level catastrophe, they have continually allowed this to go on.
Remedy: Move on or trade AT LEAST 18 blokes over two years and New list manager required ASAP

2. Players fitness: Why have we go so many dad bods and pot bellies out there?
   Yeo, Duggan, Kelly, Hough, Allan (when he was here) and a fair few others dont look fit. Not to AFL standards. Not even close.
   And if anyone here thinks thats too harsh look at where we are on the ladder for last 4-6 years. Are you enjoying this or you want to move up?
   When Starc and Robertson lined up for round 1 and pre season games they look HUGE and hard fit! Thats cause of STANDARDS and bench mark fitness levels at Brissy. Im not saying you have to be as big as them two but they just come from Brissy - once again ladder position and standards MUST be higher. I love Yeo but hes always jogging 3/4 pace and yes he still has impact (albeit not enough) Imagine if he was rock hard fit.
   Remedy: Set NEW standards, benchmarks and running times. 5% drop across the board.
   New head of fitness required.

For at least 4 seasons we have been WELL below average, not quick enough, not strong enough and that manifests itself in fundamental skill errors we are seeing such as miss kicks, miss handballs and ultimately bombing the ball forward aimlessly.

This all starts at board level - wtf are they even doing. I see fitter kids at South freo colts level. Im so perplexed that this has been allowed to continue and manifest the way it has. Im honestly in disbelief.
Its a disaster!

Only 1 more game for the year after today(thankfully).
Just wanted to voice my opinions and hear what everyone elses thoughts are! 😃

I’m typically pretty quiet about this stuff but really felt like voicing myself a bit after the year we’ve had.

- Went into the year not expecting much, but then they gave me hope, having a few wins early seasons then having a few really close losses made me feel good.
I’m sure the players get that the seasons done but it just feels like a majority of our players have checked out at this point.

- Reckon our senior players aren’t pulling their weight. We have the youngest team in the afl and they seem to be having more of an impact in our games than our senior players. I understand we don’t know how these senior players are behind the scenes but one I would call out is Duggan, I really think if he wasn’t a captain he would be playing in the wafl. And I’m disappointed that he was dropped by mini and a point and just all the sudden earned his spot back.

- I’m still not sold on Mini. I know it’s his first coaching gig, I know we are lacking experience but jeez the clips we saw of him when he first got the gig he seemed like a solid candidate, had some energy and excitement and I can’t help but feel like he’s just fallen flat since.
- list management, I understand we are just fans and aren’t the ones choosing the players at the end of the day but I don’t understand how we can be dropping and adding players left and right the last 2 years and so far this year we won a couple games and it almost feels like no one else is getting opportunities to play at afl level.

- More list management, again I understand we are just fans and don’t have an impact but I don’t get why it never seems we are making efforts to get out of contract or potentially trying to snag any other players. I get there is a large portion of players from VIC but I feel like every time I see contract talks for anyone we are never even in the discussion and I can’t help but feel we need more experience to help drive these young players otherwise we are just wasting their time and ours.

- where do we go from here? Honestly I have no idea, I said to myself if we see a few more wins and close games this year then there’s some more hope for the future but I can’t help but have those doubts these last couple weeks, and I’m worried that if we see no progress next year not only de we potentially not keep Mini on but could easily lose some of these important young players.
I

Please remember these are my opinions, you don’t have to agree! more than happy to hear everyone else’s views! And thoughts!

Carn the eagles for 2027 🦅

I would like to take a moment to appreciate tom coles revitalising move to the forward line. He went from team whipping boy alongside duggan to one of the few senior Eagles who still plays with some energy. I really hope he earns a another year with us he's shown he's worth it imo

Didn’t see one yet so thought I’d put it up

I’m not usually one to point the blame at coaching, but today really drove home a point I’ve been feeling lately.

Mini seems to have a very specific system he wants to play. High forward press and deep inside 50 entries. Statistically this works for other teams as the deep inside 50s aren’t every single entry, so defenders aren’t always set up for them. Teams know this is what we do and set up accordingly. At some point the “stay the course” narrative starts to become redundant. A goal conversion of 13% is laughably bad. 1 goal per 9 i50…

The high forward press means we allow all their forwards to be goal side, and transition kills us. This can work obviously, but it feels like it’s really hurting us with our current defensive stocks. Happened multiple times today with Duggan and Lindsay (rookie and experienced) letting Hamilton goal side to run in to an open goal. Our deep forward entries mean the ball hits the ground within 20m of the goals, and we’re playing Waterman, Shanahan, CDT + J Will up front. Aka, no ground representation. It feels like the system is a running contradiction where we never play our players to their strengths/abilities. The ball hits the ground, teams rebound, the opposing team’s forwards are goal side, and the cycle repeats.

In Broad’s retirement speech this week, he said something to the effect of “it was nice to have a coach who recognised our strengths, and played us based on our strengths and not our weaknesses”. Importantly, this means Hardwick built the roles for his system AFTER seeing what his players could do. It feels like Mini seems to have reversed this. He has a set system and roles which he asks players to fill. For example, today he played Herbert 1v1 with Greene… he completely exposed a guy whose strengths are completely misaligned with this role. He sets up a midfield which says Harley + Kelly do whatever you want, and whoever the third player is HAS to be defensive. That set up means Duursma can’t go in there, Bo Allan can’t go in there and guys like Hewett, who’s strength is inside-outside clearance breaking, is being asked to be a pure defensive mid (which he clearly doesn’t suit).

Rolling a midfield of Graham, Kelly + Yeo in the second last game of 2026 feels incredibly confusing and shows a real lack of development.

Meanwhile, Mini has continued to protect his chosen guys like Duggan and Davis, moving them around to ensure they don’t get exposed.

I’m sure there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, but from a footy nuffy perspective, I’m worried about Mini.

Looking into this game with the Hawks, it appears the game is sold out. I'm looking for two tickets

What are my best options?

I could see that with the pies game some tickets were available closer to the game. Is this typical?

Schoenberg
HJ
Barnett
Owies
Brockman
Cripps (retired)
Rodriguez
Newton
Long

My opinion of who’s getting the chop.

I know the girls lost today 8.6 54 - 6.6 42 but HOLY SHIT

DID YOU GUYS SEE CHARLOTTE.

Like i know we all love to watch Ella Roberts but MAN did Charlotte really try to keep us in the game there in the last few minutes it felt almost winnable.
shame we couldn't translate but seeing some positive signs from these girls.

Why aren't we going hard for Neale. We have plenty of salary space left I presume so just give him a couple of years and he would massively help Reid and co in the midfield not just in game but in development.

He would be a massive help like Mitchell was when he came here towards the end of his career.

Not sure if it’s just me but this guys season has been very underrated in the AFL community, I find the media is giving him his flowers but the fans can’t stand him.

These are his stats since round 10(GWS game) and where he ranks in the league.

Disposals: 26 25th
Clearances: 7.8 2nd
Inside 50s: 5 15th
Contested possessions: 14.5 3rd
Score involvements: 7 21st
Meters gained: 448

I’m sure we all know it but he’s going to be an absolute star