‘Shocker’: West Coast Eagles’ off-season from hell

It’s been anything but a steady off-season for the West Coast Eagles, with the club embroiled in vaccination scandals and injury setbacks.

The West Coast Eagles off-season from hell.

Vaccination scandals, injury woes, pride round backlash — it’s been anything but a steady off-season for the West Coast Eagles.

Speaking on the Don’t Shoot the Messenger podcast, veteran footy reporter Caroline Wilson singled out West Coast for having the worst off-season heading into the 2022 premiership “by a million miles”.

“Carlton has had an embarrassing backflip on a new executive, embarrassing for the new CEO Brian Cook, and Collingwood has had Jordan De Goey,” she said.

“The list goes on, but West Coast by a million miles has won the AFL club with the worst off-season.”

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The playing future of West Coast star Jack Darling remains in doubt after his failure to comply with the AFL’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate left him banned from training with his teammates.

The Eagles remain unsure if Darling will get vaccinated against Covid-19 in time to play in Round 1, or at all.

Meanwhile, West Coast has been ravaged by injury throughout the pre-season with Luke Shuey, Jamie Cripps and Oscar Allen all sidelined. Meanwhile, Brad Sheppard was forced into retirement due to concussion issues.

Jack Darling of the Eagles. Pic: Michael Klein

And last month, West Coast’s AFLW coach Michael Prior was forced to apologise for comments about the Eagles’ decision not to wear a pride jumper.

“I’ve got a simple view,” he told The West Australian.

“That’s not my role. I talk about footy, not what we’re wearing,” he told the publication.

“I think we’ve done the pride stuff to death to be honest.

“I want to talk about the footy, not the jumper.”

But Wilson was particularly unimpressed with the reasoning behind West Coast’s decision not to don a pride guernsey during pride round, claiming the club’s handling of the situation was “just ridiculous”.

“Oscar Allen is in a moon boot, their captain Luke Shuey is injured again, Jack Darling, another great forward, is refusing to be vaccinated, and they are the only AFLW club who didn’t wear a pride jumper when pride round was held in January,” she said.

“Their reasoning was embarrassing, very, very badly explained and back to the arrogant old West Coast.

“Their AFLW coach made the unfortunate comment that, ‘The pride thing has been done to death and I want to talk about the footy,’ and that they didn’t have time to make a jumper or something. It was just ridiculous.

Eagles AFLW head coach Michael Prior. Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“On and off the field, Trevor Nisbett, who has been CEO of that club for a long time … he’s done a great job in many areas, but has had some black marks along the way including the drug saga of the early 2000s.

“But seriously, it’s been a shocker for them.”

The Eagles currently sit 13th on the AFLW ladder, with just one victory from their seven fixtures to date. West Coast will next face the Brisbane Lions at Perth’s Mineral Resources Park on Sunday at 5.10pm AEDT.