West Coast will reportedly consider asking the AFL for an unprecedented exemption as part of its draft assistance package pitch next month.

The Eagles’ miserable 2025 campaign concluded on Saturday night with a 67-point loss to Sydney, ensuring they finished with a record-low 1-22 ratio for the season.

With just 11 wins from their past 95 games, the Eagles will now seek draft assistance from the AFL.

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“As disappointing as it is, we are where we are,” Eagles chief executive Don Pyke told SEN last month.

“With the draft as compromised as it’s been, we feel like we can benefit from some assistance to get ourselves out of where we’ve been.”

The AFL Commission will assess West Coast’s submission in Grand Final week and make a call on whether the club should be granted an assistance package from the league.

It comes after West Coast on the weekend confirmed co-captain Oscar Allen had plans to exercise his free agency rights, with the expectation he’ll join Brisbane during the off-season. Yet the Lions’ offer to Allen is widely expected to net West Coast a Band 1 free agency compensation selection, which would be Pick 2 – the pick after the Eagles’ natural first-rounder.

Possibly complicating that Eagles scenario, however, is the prospect of the club landing its own free agent in premiership Lion Brandon Starcevich, whose potential arrival would weaken the Allen compensation selection.

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Speaking on Footy Classified on Tuesday night, senior AFL Media reporter Cal Twomey said the Eagles would, therefore, ask the AFL to not “dilute” the Allen compo pick as part of their pitch.

“There’s two things we can reveal around part of that submission,” Twomey told Footy Classified.

“One of them is extra rookie list spots. They’ve got some opportunities to bring in some NGA prospects who might fit in as rookie-listed players. So North Melbourne received that as part of their 2023 assistance package.

“The other, more significant, consideration that they’ll discuss with the AFL is the exemption to bring in a free agent without diluting their free agency compensation pick that they’re set to receive for Oscar Allen. That is going to, we all think, be Pick 2 in the national draft … Uncharted territory, never happened before, never been an exemption that’s allowed this.

“This is what I would call ‘the Brandon Starcevich rule’, because they are in the market for Brandon Starcevich. He’s been weighing up Essendon, staying at Brisbane or going to West Coast. I think it’s narrowed now to be out of staying at Brisbane or going to West Coast on a longer-term deal.

“The Eagles are keen on him, but bringing him in as a free agent under normal circumstances would dilute the No.2 pick. They don’t want to do that and they don’t want to trade for him.

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“So I think as part of this discussion and submission, they’re likely to throw up the ability to get a free agent, such as Brandon Starcevich, whilst keeping Pick 2. It would be significant.”

It comes after Allen last week informed West Coast of his intention to explore his options as a restricted free agent.

Allen had a forgettable 2025 campaign, kicking 12 goals from 12 games before his season was cut short by injury. Amid his on-field struggles, it also emerged Allen had met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell as he weighed up his footy future, with the co-captain then fronting the media for an awkward press conference.

“This has been one of the messier endings between club and captain – events that they’d probably all like again,” AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley said on Monday night.

“If Oscar Allen did the wrong thing meeting Sam Mitchell, the club did the wrong thing parading him for an apology. There was never any intention from the club to recontract its captain.

“What I do know is Oscar Allen will be happier in Brisbane than he has been at West Coast.

“I think they are all at fault here.”

Melbourne legend and fellow AFL 360 co-host Garry Lyon added: “That was a mess. Captains shouldn’t meet with other coaches – and I maintain that, I said it at the time.

“There’s a certain honour and dignity that comes with being the captain of the club. Sitting down with an opposition coach at that time was not the way to go.”