The 2020 premiership favourites barely put a foot wrong in Round 1’s win over Melbourne.
But with an extended layoff, an ageing list and a government-imposed exile from the comforts of home, you have to wonder with circumstances are conspiring against the Eagles.
Here are four burning questions for West Coast as we approach the restart of this season.
1. How much better does Tim Kelly make us?
It’s not every day a player of Kelly’s calibre requests a trade to your club and, despite the price to acquire him being steep, it will all be worth it if he leads the Eagles to another premiership.
West Coast paid a small fortune to prize last year’s fifth-place in the Brownlow medal, but the 25-year-old looked slick in Round 1 despite not producing earth-shattering numbers.
He only had the 19 disposals and two clearances against the Demons, but used the ball superbly and had a team-high six inside 50s to go along with 487 metres gained.
More importantly, however, he gives the inside midfield a huge boost in star power and this will make a huge difference over the course of 2020.
Luke Shuey had 52 centre clearances last season – second at the club behind Elliot Yeo – but was allowed to play more on the wing in Round 1 and starred with 27 disposals, five tackles and 500 metres gained in a surefire three-vote effort.
A coalface trio of Kelly, Yeo and Jack Redden is more than good enough to get the clearance work done and if that allows Shuey and Andrew Gaff to play more as outside midfielders they’ll be very hard to stop.
Tim Kelly makes the Eagles serious contenders. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
2. How big of a deal is Willie Rioli’s absence?
Rioli is currently serving a provisional suspension for allegedly producing a fake urine sample last year and almost certainly won’t be pulling on the jumper in 2020.
He may have only kicked 18 goals in 2019, but he was sixth in the AFL for goal assists and his absence seemed to harm the Eagles in their upset semi-final loss to Geelong.
West Coast lost the inside 50 count in that game badly anyway, but their inefficiency inside 50 was also quite poor.
He missed nine games in 2019 and five of West Coast’s six lowest scores of the season were in those matches. They lost four of the five he didn’t play.
Even against Melbourne in Round 1, they only managed 71 points. That’s enough to beat the Dees, but in 2019 they lost seven of the nine games they scored fewer than 80 points.
Liam Ryan and Jamie Cripps will play their role but, with Daniel Venables also ruled out for the year, the lack of depth at small forward is a worry.
3. Should we worried about the age of our list?
When the resumption of this season appeared uncertain, a lot of Roar readers remarked that West Coast would be impacted the most severely.
The perception was that, with several ageing stars, their premiership window was on the wane and a missed season could see it slammed shut.
The Eagles are definitely older than Richmond, Collingwood and GWS, but I don’t quite agree with that sentiment.
They’ve got six players in over-30 club at present; Josh Kennedy, Shannon Hurn, Will Schofield, Lewis Jetta, Nic Naitanui and Luke Shuey.
Admittedly, there are some worries in that group with Kennedy and Naitanui having well-documented injury histories. But Hurn has been ultra-reliable, Jetta doesn’t use his pace much anymore, Shuey looked in scintillating touch in Round 1 and Schofield is behind Jeremy McGovern and Tom Barrass in the key defender pecking order anyway.
The rest of the club’s superstars are comfortably inside the 25-28 years old bracket, with a handful of promising youngsters coming through too including Ryan, Liam Duggan and Oscar Allen.
Adam Simpson’s game style too is very kick-heavy and seems resistant to players slowing down with age. They were second-last for tackles in 2019 and last in contested possessions, so it’s not as if the team is built to win through prime-bodied specimens out-muscling and out-running the opposition.
As long the stuff between the ears works fine, West Coast’s players will be fine too.
Shannon Hurn isn’t getting younger. (Photo by Will Russell/AFL Media/Getty Images)
4. Will this season’s quirks cost us a premiership?
All that said, however, this season still has significant differences to it and it’s hard to argue against Western Australia’s clubs being particularly disadvantaged.
It’s not some great VFL AFL conspiracy, but the WA government’s (perfectly reasonable) restrictions on entering and exit the state mean they’ll have to forfeit home games to neutral venues.
Their ‘home’ game against Richmond being at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast is obviously massive. The Eagles have monstered the Tigers in their last two meetings in Perth and, in a 17-game season, whatever differences the venue change may have on this game could be enormous.
With no guarantee of a return to Perth once this block of fixtures is over either, West Coast’s quest for the premiership could be an uphill one.
PriddisJunior
Roar Rookie
Waterman's goalking accuracy is impressive. Prob doing alright with goal numbers too. I think Don's onto it, you must be mixing up the brothers.
Johnno
Roar Rookie
Greatest? Done a good job as the face of managing an emergency. Other then that, he’s done nothing. Now the politics has kicks in, we will see how good he is.
PriddisJunior
Roar Rookie
I only remember A touched SYD goal. Think it was Embeley.
PriddisJunior
Roar Rookie
Didn't know the navy part. Knew he was from Rocko. Presented an award at my school graduation when Beazley couldn't make it.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
It's staggering to think there are people on this site, trying to talk footy, who still think a Premiership is an individual award. Willie is a good player but he is easily replaced at West Coast. If he hadn't played in that premiership, whoever replaced him would have been a pre3
Scott
Guest
I think if Rioli was playing this would be West Coast best ever side on paper. We can look back at the other dominate teams of the 90s and say how good they were, but you forget that all the players weren’t at their peak at the same time. Many of them were not the elite players in their position as well. The team now has 10 players who were ranked elite in the last 2 years. It’s the players that aren’t ranked elite which makes this team so good though, because they play specialist roles which don’t score well on champion data. Gaff is not rated elite because he plays primarily as an outside midfielder and has a lot of uncontested possessions. Sheppard is one of the very best small lockdown defenders in the game but lockdown defenders dont score well on champion data. Then you have Liam Ryan and Rioli that are both specialist forward pockets who are both in the top handful of skilled forwards in the league. The small forwards who score well on champion data play more midfield minutes. Throw in young players who are capable of going elite like Duggan, Sheed and Oscar Allen and I’m convinced this is the best Eagles side ever on paper. They just need to make it count with another premiership. They absolutely blew a huge chance last year by coming out half asleep vs Hawthorn. I still can’t get over what the hell happened that game, that arguably cost them another grand final appearance, it should’ve been treated as a final. It doesn’t matter how skilled the team is on paper, if you rock up to an important game without motivation you’re screwed. Hopefully they don’t make the same mistake again.
Scott
Guest
I agree on Willie. It was good to see an article mentioning his importance to the side. He is that guy that manages to break the lines with skills rather then brute force. How many times does he give them them cute little taps forward to a teammate, which result in the zone being broken and west coast running into an open goal. It’s a skill they should just name a “Rioli tap” cause they basically all have it. Not to mention the spins and sidesteps they all have as well, they are just football freaks, who are so valuable in today’s game, by being able to break through zones.
Nick
Roar Guru
In 2013 Ross’s manic pressure game plan did work. Hawthorn learned how to counter the game plan, because Lyon never changed it from St Kilda, and people already figured how to work it out. Ross Lyon has never coached a team to 100 points in a final. That's a devastating indictment on his record. His plan works in the H/A when he plays lesser teams. The best teams are teams score. Fremantle finished 10th for attack in 2013. No other grand finalist finished so low on the attacking list. Hawthorn scored 400 more points in the H/A season. Those extra 3-4 goals a game were the difference in the final. His legacy will be one of wasting prodigiously talented players and constricting them from their natural games.
13th Man
Roar Rookie
In 2013 Ross's manic pressure game plan did work. The week before against Sydney was some fantastic footy. In the GF there were 2 issues. Hawthorn had worked out how to counter the game plan already and the boys got huge stage fright, and kicked themselves out of it badly. It does go to show that Lyon's gameplans somewhat worked in the H & A but going into big games crumbled. By halfway through 2015 every side had worked Lyon out and he didn't change a thing, yet Freo held onto him for 4 more seasons...
Larrikin
Roar Rookie
Thank you West Coast and Fremantle for going to QLD for a month so the AFL season can re start. Everyone should put their hands together for these 2 clubs and the SA teams. If this didn't happen we wouldn't have a season. Thanks Eagles and Freo !
The Dom is good
Roar Rookie
I think its an absolute travesty that no-one knows yet whats happening with Rioli. This poor kid is in limbo as is the club and they have a right to know what the hell is going on. Is it the idiots at ASADA? whats taking so long?
6x6 perkele
Roar Rookie
Hope is a weakness, Richmond has a better record at Metricon than wce but fwiw wce have only played there once not counting bears days.
6x6 perkele
Roar Rookie
Meh I have just had more pressing issues than you spruce, sometimes kid opinions will differ to your own and best to let people have them and disagree than calling it whinging and trying to prove you're a little to time rich. Do you have a good chilli crab recipe?
6x6 perkele
Roar Rookie
Quite sometime, the statue of him as a golden calf will be soon as I quite like false idols aswell mate.
Gerard Klomp
Guest
Thanks Realist. and very True.
ScottyJ
Roar Rookie
That's actually really funny Realist...
Realist
Guest
Sounds like great love story,....how long have you felt this way about McGoo, 36?
Julian
Roar Rookie
I believe Oscar is actually closer to 193-194 cm (Kennedy is 194cm) as he's grown since being drafted or was listed incorrectly to begin with.
Julian
Roar Rookie
I think Rioli is so important to the Eagles because he sets up play, has incredible vision to move the ball, often starts in the centre square and provides more effective pressure than the other small forwards. He's that rare combination of football nous, excellent skills and physical ability - much like Cyril really. He's just a different player who balances out the team between the midfield and forward line. However, I do think with Sheed and the addition of Kelly they now have two midfielders that can kick goals. Ryan is also rapidly developing into a much more versatile and valuable player than I thought he would be across the ground. And of course, Cripps is not as flashy but arguably elite for his position. So I think the Eagles will cope but at the end of the day, if you replace Petruccelle with Rioli you have a much stronger team.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
He said that when the radio man said: "So John, How did you find America?". ----- Elvis worked hard to keep Lennon out.