Analysis: West Coast can prepare for star ruckman Nic Nat’s absence by making a bid for GWS Giant Rory Lobb
LAST weekend we thought Nic Naitanui was superhuman.
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LAST weekend we thought Nic Naitanui was superhuman.
Yesterday came the bitter confirmation that he was just as susceptible to footy’s dreaded knee curse as anybody else.
This weekend is for grief and supporting Naitanui, one of the most popular players at West Coast.
Come tomorrow, the club’s list management team must turn its attention to filling the massive hole Naitanui leaves for next season.
The Eagles will not consider a quick-fix LARS operation. The dreadlocked superstar will miss not only the finals series, but most, if not all, of next year as well.
That means the imminent launch of Operation Get Lobb.
The only silver lining in this devastating blow for the Eagles is that with Naitanui doing his knee now, rather than during the pre-season next year, they can plan for his absence in 2017.
West Coast was already believed to be interested in luring 206cm contested marking monster Rory Lobb from Greater Western Sydney.
Beating Fremantle to the 23-year-old’s signature will now become the Eagles’ No. 1 trade period priority.
Naitanui is irreplaceable. But a ruck combination of the improving Scott Lycett and Lobb next season wouldn’t be a bad one.
In the meantime, Naitanui faces the long road back. He will attempt to return in the lead-up to next year’s finals series.
If not, his comeback could come in one of the biggest footy games in this state’s history — a Western Derby in Round 1, 2018, to launch a new era at Perth Stadium.
Naitanui’s left anterior cruciate ligament injury has triggered the predictable response from around the country that the Eagles can’t win the flag.
The brutal reality is that West Coast needed a miracle to win this year’s premiership anyway.
If results go as expected for the remainder of the home and away season, the Eagles will finish seventh.
Flags don’t get won from seventh by anyone. Let alone by a team from Perth travelling four times in a row. Five when you include the Round 23 trip to Adelaide Oval.
Premierships don’t get won from outside of the top four. Even if Naitanui had been fit to inspire a boilover win against Adelaide on Friday night, West Coast would still have missed the four.
There’s little doubt that Naitanui is the club’s most important player.
However the Eagles did not lose their chance to win the flag when Naitanui’s knee buckled on Friday night to sour the brilliant win over Hawthorn.
They had already blown their chance by the time they decided to send Naitanui for surgery on both of his heels after Round 12.
West Coast had a 7-5 record then. Given the big number of wins required for a top-four finish since the AFL became an 18-team competition in 2012, they Eagles had already dropped too many.
The fact the Eagles have lost just one game from that point and will still miss the four is proof of that. That one defeat, to Collingwood at the MCG in Round 19, was the final nail in their top-four coffin.
Originally published as Analysis: West Coast can prepare for star ruckman Nic Nat’s absence by making a bid for GWS Giant Rory Lobb
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