West Coast Eagles recent record of complaining and excuse-making has led to era of organisational failure

Another week, another excuse. And with Eagles losses mounting across elite programs, something has to change, writes MARK DUFFIELD.

Michael Prior’s AFLW post-match comments are indicative of a broader club malaise. Picture: Gary Day/AFL Photos via Getty Images

For West Coast board members, the post-match complaining by AFLW coach Michael Prior about the club’s draw should be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

That is to say, it is one whinge too many from a club that has whinged too often in the past four seasons – across all of its teams.

Halfway through answering his first question at his press conference following a 70-point belting by Narrm (Melbourne), Prior abandoned talking about his team’s first half pressure (which he said was right up there) and started talking about the fixtures – “at the end of the day it is the team that won the grand final last year against the team that finished last” – before wondering aloud how his team could possibly be asked to play a team as good as the Dees when there are 18 teams in the competition and only 10 rounds.

Watch the full post-match press conference with Senior Coach Michael Prior. pic.twitter.com/lR3WsFtoJS

— West Coast Eagles AFLW (@eaglesaflw) October 15, 2023

Apparently, like his team, Prior dropped the ball halfway through.

But we shouldn’t single Prior out.

Since the start of the 2020 season, the Eagles have made complaining and excuse-making compulsory.

Competing, on the other hand, seems to be optional.

And all the while the standards this once-mighty club deems acceptable have slid further into the mire, to the point where the men’s team has just claimed its second wooden spoon after recording five wins from the last 45 games.

Its WAFL team has just collected its third wooden spoon in as many seasons and were winless in 2023. And the women’s team who, contrary to Prior’s claim finished 16th last year and not last, is 17th this season with a solitary win.

The brutal draw Prior deemed too much to bear has included losses against 13th ranked Walyalup (Fremantle), 9th ranked Carlton, 12th ranked Sydney and 16th ranked GWS and a solitary win against 15th ranked Port Adelaide.

Apart from the third ranked Dees who, it must be said, are a damn good AFLW team, the only other top eight team the Eagles have faced is seventh ranked Gold Coast, who walloped them by 73 points.

The West Coast Eagles have only played two top eight placed clubs so far in 2023. Picture: Gary Day/AFL Photos via Getty Images

They will face Essendon (fifth) and top ranked Adelaide in the run home. But they will also face the Western Bulldogs, the only team below them on the ladder.

It is not easy to build a competitive AFLW list – something the Eagles have found out. There are legitimate questions to be asked about whether the WA women‘s development pathway is keeping pace with other states.

But if it isn’t, is any club in the AFL better placed to give it a boost via investment in the system than West Coast, with their $55 million share portfolio and around $110 million in net assets?

Instead of making excuses, make a difference.

Prior’s comments continue a pattern of behaviour that started with Adam Simpson effectively giving his team an “out” when they were sent to Queensland for five weeks to get the pandemic affected 2020 season restarted.

They couldn’t wait to get home and made it clear to all they felt the WA teams were being handed the rough end of the pineapple by being the first to go on the road.

In the end, grand finalist Geelong and premiers Richmond were handed much tougher deals after the virus chased them out of Victoria. Those teams simply realised there was still a premiership to be won and set about doing it.

West Coast has been finding excuses ever since – injuries in 2021, injuries and Covid-19 in 2022 and injuries in 2023. All valid to a point. But how much failure can you find acceptable?

Clearly, as far as the Eagles board is concerned, the answer is more failure than they have had so far.

If the fish rots from the head then the Eagles board has a lot to answer for here. They have turned indecision, the acceptance of excuses and sitting on their hands in the face of crisis into an art form.

Former Australian cricketer and coach Justin Langer is an Eagles board member. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

They couldn’t bring themselves to part company with coach Simpson when the entire football industry, including people close to Simpson, thought he was done.

The timing of long time CEO Trevor Nisbett’s departure remains as clear as mud. Nisbett will not go beyond 2024 but will stay until a successor is found and so remains paused halfway out the door with no-one yet on the way in.

In the meantime, the club is drifting aimlessly towards another unsuccessful AFLW finish, on top of unsuccessful 2023 WAFL and AFL finishes.

The Eagles are in dire need of fresh eyes, fresh energy and fresh ideas.

But they also need to quickly put an end to finding reasons for failure rather than ways to avoid it, a trait that has become an unhealthy habit of the past four years.

You can’t start rebuilding until you stop the rot.

Otherwise, you don’t have a foundation to build on.

Originally published as West Coast Eagles recent record of complaining and excuse-making has led to era of organisational failure