{"id":35513,"date":"2025-07-31T18:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T18:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35513\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T18:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T18:16:16","slug":"west-coast-eagles-go-cap-in-hand-to-the-afl-should-they-get-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35513\/","title":{"rendered":"West Coast Eagles go cap-in-hand to the AFL, should they get help?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understandably, West Coast prioritised trying to stay at the top of the mountain and keep the premiership window open, instead of hitting the draft.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Josh Kennedy (right) and Shannon Hurn in 2021. The Eagles leaned on their vets to chase another flag, but should there have been more forward planning?Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

They did so by landing then-Cat Tim Kelly back home, but they paid a hefty price, parting ways with a bevvy of picks.<\/p>\n

It resulted in three consecutive drafts, from 2018 to 2020, without a first-round pick.<\/p>\n

On top of this, they prioritised sticking with the tried-and-tested formula of senior players who had achieved the ultimate success, over playing and developing youth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a major reason for why they\u2019re at an all-time low, while the forced medical retirements of Jeremy McGovern<\/a>, Brad Sheppard, Daniel Venables and Luke Edwards has also been significant.<\/p>\n

West Coast are already primed to receive compensation of sorts this year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s widely expected they\u2019ll receive draft pick number two for losing co-captain Oscar Allen, who is set to walk to Brisbane.<\/p>\n

But when you look at the sustained lack of success at other clubs, it\u2019s difficult to land on providing a handout.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to look far to see Fremantle – a club yet to achieve the ultimate, managing one grand final appearance from 30 completed seasons.<\/p>\n

Expansion clubs GWS and Gold Coast are yet to win premierships, Port Adelaide have one – so too St Kilda from more than 100 years.<\/p>\n

Adelaide have two flags, the Western Bulldogs the same in this, their centenary year.<\/p>\n

While West Coast shouldn\u2019t be denied assistance purely for being a successful club, they also shouldn\u2019t be granted help for this their first sustained period they\u2019ve encountered hardship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Understandably, West Coast prioritised trying to stay at the top of the mountain and keep the premiership window…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-35513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35513","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=35513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}