West Coast have had “a shocker” of a pre-season and the worst “by a million miles”, according to senior AFL journalist Caroline Wilson.
The veteran columnist and commentator pointed out the grim summers of Carlton and Collingwood, who’ve had executive and legal problems to deal with respectively.
But Wilson was unflinching in her view that the Eagles had had the worst pre-season of all 18 clubs, as Adam Simpson’s men look to recover from their 2021 finals exile.
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“I’ll have to travel west to make a decision here (on which team has had the worst off-season). I mean, there have been issues at several Victorian clubs,” Wilson told the Don’t Shoot the Messenger podcast.
“Carlton has had an embarrassing backflip on a new executive, embarrassing for the new CEO Brian Cook, and Collingwood has had Jordan De Goey.
“The list goes on, but West Coast by a million miles has won the AFL club with the worst off-season.
“Oscar Allen is in a moon boot, their captain Luke Shuey is injured again, Jack Darling, another great forward, is refusing to be vaccinated (for COVID-19), and they are the only AFLW club who didn’t wear a pride jumper when Pride Round was held in January.
“Their reasoning was embarrassing, very, very badly explained and back to the arrogant old West Coast.”
It’s not only Allen and Shuey who are injured less than a month out from the first round of the season, but Jamie Cripps and Liam Duggan.
West Coast’s ravaged forward line means a mountain of responsibility will fall on Josh Kennedy, who’s a 675-goal legend of the club but is now 34 and fading.
Red-hot talent Willie Rioli is expected to return to the West Coast forward line early in the season, but he hasn’t played since 2019 because of a drugs ban.
Wilson doubled down on the Eagles’ disdain for Pride Round.
“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,” Wilson said.
“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.”
Compounding West Coast’s summer woes is their AFLW team, who are positioned in second-last on the ladder and have won just one game.
The AFL side will begin their season in a clash with the Gold Coast Suns at Perth Stadium on March 20.
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