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Every club in the top eight has quality midfielders, and every club that aspires to be a premiership contender needs them.
Every top-line midfield in the AFL has the ability to stand up when the game is in the balance, be a leader and influence the game more than anyone else on the ground. And that is precisely what the West Coast Eagles lack.
The midfield of the Eagles, as it stands on the team sheet against Greater Western Sydney, reads as follows: Jamie Cripps, Matt Priddis and Matt Rosa in the centre and on the wings, Dean Cox, Scott Selwood and Andrew Gaff on the ball, Chris Masten and Sharrod Wellingham on the bench, Mark Hutchings in the half-forward line and Luke Shuey in the forward pocket.
On top of that former Hawthorn premiership player Xavier Ellis, ex-Brisbane player Elliot Yeo, Jamie Bennell, Brad Sheppard, Jack Darling and Shannon Hurn have the capability to go through the midfield and have done so at various times this year. Even Nic Naitanui can be classified as a midfielder, due to his influence not just as a ruckman.
But would any one of those players be put in the highest bracket of midfielders in the competition? Would one of them be mentioned in the same vein as Gary Ablett, Scott Pendlebury and Jobe Watson? No.
This season it has become more of an apparent problem after the retirement of Daniel Kerr and Andrew Embley, two champions of the club and brilliant footballers in their own right.
When you lose two players with a combined 470 games experience, runner-up in the Brownlow Medal, a Norm Smith Medal and two Premiership Medallions, it leaves a gaping hole in the team, even if the last few years of their careers were spent more on the sidelines with injury than on the field.
Still , it provides an opportunity for the younger players to step up and provide the level of leadership that those players did.
In the games against Port Adelaide in Round 5, Carlton in Round 6 and Fremantle in Round 7, the Eagles have desperately lacked the leadership of a brilliant midfielder. In each of those games there has been a moment where the opposition has got the upper hand, and regardless of whether the Eagles were in front or not, they have been incapable of getting the ball, slowing the game down and playing it on their terms.
In the fourth quarter against Carlton, when the crowd lifted for the home team and a couple of contentious umpiring decisions allowed Carlton a glimpse, the Eagles could hardly get the ball. Carlton kicked four straight goals and won the game.
Had there been a Daniel Kerr, Andrew Embley, or going back even further a Ben Cousins or Chris Judd to settle the team down, the Eagles would have won. All they needed was for one of them to get the ball and hold it up for a while, or dance through a pack and kick a goal.
All of a sudden the momentum that Carlton had gained is lost. The same situations were evident in the games against Fremantle and Port Adelaide. When Fremantle’s big bodied midfielders got a hold of the ball, there was no way that the Eagles were getting it back.
So what do the Eagles need to do? Do they trade for one, draft someone and hope, or wait for one of the current batch to see if they can step up and become the influential player that they so desperately need? All of the above are viable possibilities.
If they were to wait, the only player who really has the potential to step up and be that A-grader is Luke Shuey. Masten has improved and is a ball-winning runner, and that’s where he should play. Gaff and Rosa are the same.
Wellingham has X-factor, is quick, has good hands and is a generally reliable kick. He would be second in line behind Shuey, but there are questions over his desire. Selwood is a very good tagger, and doesn’t have the foot skills or speed to be that player.
Shuey has the speed, skill and hardness to be that player, and if he matures a bit, the Eagles would have found that player. His time is now. But that doesn’t mean their problems will be solved. The great teams have more than two of these players. And that’s where the Eagles need to develop.
Until they do, the midfield of this club will not be able to compete with others in the moments that matter.
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