\n Brandon Starcevich got his first look at Mineral Resources Park ahead of moving back to Perth next month\n <\/p>\n
\n By westcoasteagles.com.au\n <\/p>\n
Brandon Starcevich says the opportunity to help lead and shape West Coast\u2019s developing players was a factor in his decision to become an Eagle.<\/p>\n
Starcevich toured Mineral Resources Park for the first time last week, meeting several of his new teammates and club leaders before making the permanent shift back home next month.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old was a key acquisition for the Eagles during the Trade Period, bringing the experience of two flags, three Grand Finals and 132 games to West Coast\u2019s youthful squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously with the list profile there\u2019s a lot of young guys here already and a few more to come in in a month or so, so really excited about working with those guys and growing my leadership in that space,\u201d Starcevich said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of great mentors and leaders in my time in footy, so being able to pass on some of my wisdom and knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to helping them and that will help me in turn as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole (decision-making) process took 12 months probably and weighing up what I thought was best for me going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of that was coming back to Perth and getting back to the network with friends and family. Very grateful that West Coast opened their arms and let me in.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally looking forward to getting to work with this young group who are very talented and there\u2019s a lot of great leaders as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starcevich bolsters the Eagles\u2019 defensive stocks and will be another valuable mentor for the likes of Reuben Ginbey and Brady Hough, alongside existing backline leaders Liam Duggan and Liam Baker.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019Reubs\u2019 is an absolute competitor and he looks like he\u2019s developing really well,\u201d Starcevich said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had some big jobs as a young kid, so he\u2019s probably fast-tracked his development and Brady Hough as well, he\u2019s probably played a similar role to me over the years and done some very good jobs as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I might take that role and let him get further up the field potentially, but looking forward to working with those two.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the opportunity arises, Starcevich is also eager to explore playing midfield minutes under coach Andrew McQualter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a whole lot of footy talk but that was certainly something that got floated and it was part of the reason why I explored free agency (and eventual trade) was to explore those opportunities further up the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played a lot of footy as a midfielder growing up so really keen to explore those opportunities if they\u2019re there, but I understand I made my name down back and I\u2019m happy to play that role as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Eagles are set to recruit another tough competitor with leadership qualities next month when they officially add Starcevich\u2019s former Lions teammate Deven Robertson.<\/p>\n
Dev\u2019s a ripper. He\u2019s extremely professional, really talented, tries really hard. He\u2019s an absolute beast<\/p>\n
Robertson was starved of senior opportunities at Brisbane but was equal best-and-fairest for the VFL team this season, averaging 26 disposals in 15 games, and was part of the 2023 Grand Final team that lost a thriller to Collingwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cDev\u2019s a ripper. He\u2019s extremely professional, really talented, tries really hard. He\u2019s an absolute beast,\u201d Starcevich said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll bring that competitive side and he hasn\u2019t had a crack at AFL, he\u2019s been waiting in line behind some decent midfielders at \u2018Brissy\u2019.<\/p>\n
“His leadership is a great quality of his.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Starcevich got his first look at Mineral Resources Park ahead of moving back to Perth next month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-226940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}