Adam Simpson and West Coast face big calls on list direction as Tim Kelly trade clouds future
With most of West Coast’s best players closer to the end of their career than the start, some major list decisions loom for the 2018 champions.
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Former Eagle Xavier Ellis believes West Coast’s finish to this season could determine how long it continues to strive for another flag with this veteran-laden group.
Almost half of the Eagles’ first-choice team is aged 29 or older, with major decisions on the horizon about how to stagger their retirements at a time they are still inside the top eight.
Premiership players Luke Shuey, Nic Naitanui and Jack Redden will all be 31 by year’s end and Brad Sheppard is 30, while Josh Kennedy and Shannon Hurn turn 34 in August and September, respectively.
Andrew Gaff, Jamie Cripps, Jeremy McGovern and Jack Darling will each blow out the candles on their 30th birthday cake next season.
“It’s an older demographic and eventually they will have to bottom out and get those kids in,” Ellis told the Herald Sun.
“But if you think you’ve got a chance of winning a premiership, you’d rather be having a throw at the stumps than sitting down the bottom between 10th and 18th.”
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Consecutive hidings in Victoria in the past fortnight from the Western Bulldogs then Sydney not only shone a light on the present but also where West Coast is heading.
The dilemma for 2018 premiership coach Adam Simpson – who Ellis emphatically backed – and list boss Rohan O’Brien is they have a group of experienced stars who could have another flag push in them.
Players such as dual club champion Elliot Yeo, who’s endured an injury-marred season, and premiership hero Dom Sheed, are also smack bang in their prime.
Once a mid-20s group spearheaded by Tim Kelly, Liam Ryan and Tom Barrass is factored in – with Willie Rioli a wildcard on return from his drug ban – the temptation to worry about the future later is strong.
However, only Hawthorn (seven), St Kilda (nine) and Geelong (11) have drafted fewer players than West Coast (12) in the first two rounds in the past six years.
The Eagles last picked in that region of the draft in 2018, but at this stage hold both their first- and second-round selections this year.
The Kelly deal struck with the Cats two years ago, in which West Coast parted with two first-round draft picks, plus another in the first 30 selections and one in the top 40, played a major role in that figure.
The Eagles’ logic was that Kelly – fresh from a top-five Brownlow Medal placing – could be a genuine difference-maker who had almost a decade of football left in him.
The trade will continue to be scrutinised as the years go on.
They also feel they made a heavy investment in the 2016-17 drafts, which unearthed Daniel Venables, Josh Rotham, Rioli, Jake Waterman, Jarrod Brander, Oscar Allen, Ryan and Jack Petruccelle.
Ryan and Allen are the stars of those classes, but there is significant hope for several others, particularly the out-of-contract Brander.
Developing tall trio Harry Edwards, Bailey Williams and Callum Jamieson loom as future options, while insiders are hopeful Xavier O’Neill, Liam Duggan and Tom Cole can continue to improve.
But Ellis, who played in West Coast’s 2015 Grand Final side and Hawthorn’s 2008 premiership, is yet to be convinced about the Eagles’ emerging crop.
“They’re not strong enough at the moment. They just haven’t had access to those high-end draft picks that launch clubs in a rebuild,” Ellis said.
“There are some nice players, but are there any stars sitting in the wings? I don’t think there are too many.
“Allen is one and Edwards has shown a bit, but I wouldn’t suggest that ‘Simmo’ should cut chasing for premierships and go back a year or two and reload, because the kids aren’t there.”
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