Heads need to roll after that performance, 2006 flag and 40th anniversary celebrations and this is the pissweak effort we get served up? Can’t tell me this group is improved and capable and then losing an injury ravaged Richmond that lost Dion Prestia inside 5 mins. I’m ranting but I don’t think half the team should play next week.
I've seen enough to know he has no idea how to organise a defence and we're just going to keep conceding from turnover until all our draft picks let their contracts run and leave. He genuinely spent no time this week identifying who Richmond's targets would be, even though any of us could have told him, and for the 4758594th week in a row just let them run freely. Had enough, even with our lack of players down back that was abysmal coaching.
We may never win again! Let’s go boys!
24 hours of fun before the ban hammer reigns again.
The sad part is that I'm not even upset anymore. It's just apathy. The supporter inside me wants to be angry, wants to be upset, but I just can't. It's just "Oh, we lost to Richmond? Yeah, that sounds like something we'd do". It's that kind of feeling.
It's pretty clear that the playing group is mentally broken. Self-Confidence and Self-Belief is through the floor, and that's not something the coach can fix. The players themselves need to fix it. Mini can push whatever message he wants, if the players don't have the confidence or the belief that they can execute, none of it matters.
So where do we go from here? Very simply, the players need to make a choice. Do they want to be here? If not- fine. We'll facilitate trades at the end of the year. But if they do, then they need to step up and perform.
2026 is gone now. We won't win a game for the rest of the year. Essendon will beat us, North will beat us, Carlton will beat us. All the teams that we should at least be a 50/50 chance against will beat us.
>West Coast defender Tom McCarthy has backed in his coach Andrew McQualter’s view of their shock loss to Richmond, saying his side was “actually happy” with most aspects of their performance.
>In front of their 2006 premiership heroes at Optus Stadium on Saturday, the Eagles were not able to overcome the injury-depleted and previously winless Tigers, going down by 11 points despite taking the lead twice in the final term.
>But in his post-match press conference, McQualter said his team had “improved” and they would not “catastrophise” their defeat to a side who remain last on the ladder.
>McCarthy conceded the mood in the Eagles’ post-game meeting was “pretty flat”, but said McQualter’s message had focused on the upsides of their performance.
>“He was actually pretty positive on how we went, because it was a big improvement on how we went last week. He said if the scoreboard wasn’t there, he’d be happy with our game, but obviously, we lost,” he said.
>”We just got told we owned inside-50’s, we did play our way, we just didn’t capitalise at both ends with our uncontested marking and scoreboard impact.
>”We were actually happy for the most part, but it definitely hurts.
>”Don’t underestimate it, we’re really disappointed with how we’re going compared to the start of the year, but we’re still learning. We came close today and probably had our chances to win but didn’t, so we’ve got to get to work on that.”
Guys good news the club have finally listened to our expertise and realised what they are missing out on. Reddit is filled with great potential coaches.
I think this is a step in the right direction for the club.
Where do we go from here? How does this football club stay relevant? If I’m Duursma, or Reid, or Shanahan, would I want to hang around and see where this dumpster fire goes. 5 years of being arguable the shittest football team in AFL history. Every facet of our game is deplorable, pressure, accuracy, inside 50 to goal ratio, defensive pressure. Beaten by a team that shouldn’t beat a VFL side on paper. I’ve been a ticketed member for 5 years, I’ve literally watched 3 wins in that time (fifo causes me to miss a few).
TW: rant
I didn’t choose this team, I was born into it. I couldn’t (truly) support another club if I tried. There’s 18 teams and I happen to belong to the one that is not only the worst one in the competition, but arguably the worst in history.
It’s not the fans‘ fault our performance is so poor - in fact we turn up in droves every single week despite knowing we’ll be belted. Which other club can say the same? The club is genuinely lucky to have fans like us, but how long until our patience runs out and we devolve into the rabid Essendon and Carlton fans? (no shade I think I’d be rabid if i were them)
It’s been 5 years of this shit. 5 years. I genuinely can’t enjoy the sport I love. I am no longer proud to be a west coast supporter, I’m genuinely embarrassed when I watch a game with my non footy fan partner when she asks why my team keeps kicking to the opposition.
how can I support a club that gives nothing back to its supporters? (I mean I still will because I’m a sick sick person like everyone else here) It pains me to see clubs like Collingwood, brisbane, geelong and hawthorn that go into games expecting to win or at least put up a fight and basking in the glory when they do win, hearing the media praise their players and coach and just being able to enjoy the footy.
The coffee bloke from critical AFL was right, the players were trying their best but with no clear instruction or game plan it makes their jobs 100x harder. Fucking Richmond’s VFL side. We’re a joke.
McQualter is a hack and I can already see us “westcoastifying“ talent like McCarthy, Ried, Dursma, Murdoch etc. I’ll say it with my chest and be happy to have this rubbed in my face when we start winning again.
This is not a knee jerk reaction to yesterday this is the culmination of 5 years of piss poor performance from the club I love.
see you all next week.
As I’m sure we’re all aware we’ve been pretty horrid this year and have been the worse team this decade so I wanted to go back and look at our drafting this decade to see if we’ve made any drafting errors or to see if we’re on the right track.
2020:
First pick was in the 50s which was Luke Edwards, a nothing draft for us.
2021:
Pick 14 Campbell Chesser
Pick 31 Brady Hough
Pick 37 Rhett Bazzo
Pick 57 Jack Williams
Pick 62 Greg Clark
Not a fantastic crop of players missed on chesser and the next 7 picks after him are all better players, Hough has been a decent contributor so far Mitchito Owens, Matt Roberts Paul Curtis and Jake Soligo were 4 out of the next 5 picks which I would say are all better players and then bazzo and Williams are pretty decent picks out of who went around them, I’d give this draft a C maybe C+
2022:
Pick 9 Reuben Ginbey
Pick 14 Elijah Hewett
Pick 23 Harry Barnett
Pick 29 Colby Burgiel
Pick 58 Noah long
I think we can say pretty easily Ginbey was the right pick at 9, Hewett has show flashes of dominance but the combination of injuries and his poor form this year has put a few question marks around him, Michalanney, Weddle and Darcy jones are all players that went a few picks after but I’d say I’m still happy with the Hewett pick as it stands.
For our last 3 picks, the players that also went around them are mostly nothing players so I won’t knock us too much for those picks especially because of Noah longs injury history, B+ draft for the Ginbey and Hewett picks.
2023:
Pick 1 Harley Reid
Pick 30 Archer Reid
Pick 38 Clay Hall
Pick 49 Harvey Johnston
I would say this is a draft of misses for us, obviously Harley was the correct pick I won’t listen to anyone that says anything else, archer at pick 30 is a decent pick on its own but Logan Morris went at pick 31 which is a massive whiff.
Hall at pick 38 is once again a decent pick on its own but Kane McAuliffe, Joe fonti and Joel freijah were 3 of the next 7 picks and all of them would’ve been a better choice and then Johnston at pick 49 has played I think 2 games in the afl side, Hugo Garcia was the next pick and Archie Roberts was pick 54 who both also would’ve been much better pickups.
Decent talent we picked up all around but we definitely could’ve picked some better players I’ll give this draft a B-
2024:
Pick 16 Bo Allan
Pick 30 Jobe Shanahan
Pick 46 Tom Gross
Pick 48 Luca Grego
Pick 65 Hamish Davis
I would say this is the first draft so far where we actually drafted well, Allan at pick 16 was a slight slider so we took the home town boy but unfortunately Murphy Reid was the next pick and he’s seeming to be an AA level player in year 2, Jobe at 30 is a massive hit so far love what he does and could be our key forward of the future.
Gross hasn’t played too much but he’s looked to be in very good form at the moment and you’d expect a call up pretty soon, Grego has only played 1 game where he looked decent and Davis hasn’t lit the world on fire but for a pick 65 I would say he’s been quite good.
Besides missing out on Reid I think we did a very good job in this draft and would rate it a B/B+
2025:
Pick 1 Willem Duursma
Pick 4 CDT
Pick 19 Josh Lindsay
Pick 39 Tylah Williams
Extremely early on in these players careers but I think they’ve all (besides Williams) outperformed expectations, Duursma is currently the rising star favourite, CDT has shown flashes of being a star and Lindsay is a player we’ve desperately needed, a very tidy half back that gives you confidence when he has the ball and Williams hasn’t played a game yet so we still need to see how he goes at the top level.
3 very good picks even if the first 2 were the obvious ones, from what we’ve seen so far I’ll rate this one a A-
I wouldn’t say we’ve ever gone to a draft and had a stinker, but we’ve definitely missed some very good players like Paul Curtis, Murphy Reid, Logan Morris and Archie Roberts to name a few.
If I look at our overall drafting this decade I’d probably rate it a B, we’ve been able to pick up a few serviceable players later in the draft while using our early picks to get high end talent, I’d say our best pick so far has been Shanahan at pick 30 he slid in the draft so we decided to pick him up and it’s seemed like a massive success.
Our worst pick is one of 3:
Pick 14 2021 Campbell Chesser:
Our first pick of this rebuild and we take Chesser, has always been injured in his career and we ended up trading him for nothing, pretty big miss.
These next 2 players aren’t bad by any means but it’s who we missed out on
Pick 30 in 2023 Archer Reid:
He’s been a decent player that has some upside but Logan Morris went at the next pick, played in 2 premierships in 2 seasons and has kicked 94 goals in his first 52 games.
Pick 16 in 2024 Bo Allan:
Very unfair on Bo he had a lot of problems last year and struggled to get a game to start the year, he’s only just starting to play consistent games and showing some good upside.
But the fact that Murphy Reid went the pick after is another miss, like I said earlier he’s in year 2 looking like an AA and is the exact type of player we could use, a classy half forward with amazing kicking inside 50.
If I had to pick one I’d go with Bo Allan, now things can change it’s unbelievably early in these guys careers but as it stands we would much rather Murphy.
Edit: No I do not think Murphy or Morris would be playing to the same level they currently are, but Reid would be a pretty big upgrade to what we already have and Logan morris even if he was in this west coast team his traits are still better then archers.
Can’t deny what players have done just because they play for a good team.
That’s my assessment of our drafting this decade, I would say above average drafting but missed out on some good players.
Let me know if you think I got anything wrong.
For all of us that have copped shit criticising the state of this club - interested to hear the positive takes after that?
What a fucking disgrace this club has become - the most inexplicable loss you can get. Our forward line was the lone shining light and is now our achilles heel, fuck me
Haven’t seen a match thread so here you go.
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Let me know what you think!