Oscar Allen set to depart the club.<\/a><\/p>\nIt was no great surprise that West Coast chief executive Don Pyke confirmed last month the club would seek priority pick help at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
McQualter sums up tough 2025 season | 09:38<\/p>\n
But some have argued the Eagles\u2019 downfall has largely been by their own doing. Herald Sun chief writer Jay Clark said West Coast was \u201cpaying for the mistakes off the back of the flag\u201d after the club opted to held onto its ageing veterans when they had trade value and went all in on Tim Kelly. <\/p>\n
They say not knowing where you are is the worst position to be in. And the Eagles basically bet on their list when they were on the slide in a recipe for disaster. <\/p>\n
However Kangaroos legend David King argued the AFL model is an \u201cequalisation business,\u201d with North Melbourne (2023 and 2024) and Gold Coast (2019) the two most recent clubs to get priority pick help. <\/p>\n
The league doesn\u2019t want teams down the bottom for too long, particularly a club as rich and powerful as West Coast. <\/p>\n
So King suspects it\u2019s a matter of when, not if, the Eagles will get a handout, leading to his debate with Clark below … <\/p>\n
King: \u201c(McQualter has) Taken over a basket case, really. This year they\u2019ve won 19 quarters of footy \u2014 the worst in the competition \u2014 last year they won 26. To put that into context, Richmond won 28 and Kangaroos won 30, so they\u2019re a long way off. I do think they need some AFL help, whether they\u2019ll get that this year or next, it\u2019ll come. They\u2019ve won 11 games in four years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark: \u201cThey’re paying for the mistakes on the back of the flag, they had the option to trade out some stars. Western Bulldogs would\u2019ve Jeremy McGovern and Jack Darling in a heartbeat. They hung onto them and didn\u2019t get those picks in and paid a lot for Tim Kelly. That\u2019s what happens. If you keep trying to shoot for the premiership, you end up paying the price. Haven\u2019t we got to move past this time of just dishing out these free picks to try and help clubs from mistakes?\u201d<\/p>\n
King: \u201cEvery club make mistakes, that\u2019s why they end up here … you can\u2019t have a club rusted to the bottom of the table for eight years when you\u2019re in the equalisation business.\u201d <\/p>\n
Clark: \u201cWell then Collingwood and Geelong, for example, should just keep loading up and topping up. And when they do fall off the cliff, they\u2019ll know the AFL will pick them up too.\u201d<\/p>\n
King: \u201cNo one is aiming to fall off the cliff. But if three people at your football club make bad decisions three years in a row, should the whole 100,000-plus strong fan base pay the price of that for a decade? That\u2019s just nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark: \u201cWell, they\u2019re about to get Pick 2 for Oscar Allen, who heads to Brisbane. So they\u2019ll already get Pick and Pick 2, that\u2019s a fair whack already … Allen going will be a win for this football club. Richmond made these hard decisions trading out their stars to get the picks in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cats secure 2nd, Cameron seals Coleman | 01:14<\/p>\n
CONCERNS FOR PIES \u2018VULNERABILITIES\u2019 AFTER CRUEL BLOW<\/p>\n
It felt like the wheels were falling off at Collingwood for a while. But the Pies crucially held onto their spot in the top four ahead of a whole new season in two weeks for a group proven on the September stage. <\/p>\n
Suddenly Collingwood fans will be daring to dream again about a repeat of 2023 after witnessing their side\u2019s flag hopes gradually dwindle in the second half of the season. <\/p>\n
Craig McRae\u2019s experienced side will have to get by without Howe for at least half of its finals campaign though, with the veteran defender to miss at least two games after a groin setback to continue his tough injury run over the last couple of months. <\/p>\n
And an AFL great is concerned that it could leave their back six vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Though Howe, 35, is in the twilight of his career, he remains an integral member of Collingwood\u2019s defence in the area of the ground that made the club so dominant earlier this season. <\/p>\n
It could set a particularly hard task if Collingwood comes up against finals opponents with multiple key forward weapons, like Adelaide, Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs, forcing the likes of Harry Perryman and Brayden Maynard to play as undersized third talls. <\/p>\n
‘This is horrific timing’ – Howe subbed | 00:42<\/p>\n
North Melbourne great David King still doesn\u2019t have complete trust in what the Pies will do this finals series, particularly with Howe sidelined for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re bankable,\u201d King said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re dangerous, which is still great. But I don\u2019t think they\u2019re the product of 2023, put it that way. They run off a few cylinders. <\/p>\n
\u201cI still think there\u2019s some defensive vulnerabilities. If Howe is not there for the first two weeks of finals against good sides, they\u2019re the cracks that get exposed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tigers champion Jack Riewoldt said Collingwood \u201cwill do anything\u201d to get Howe back to bolster McRae\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly what the extent of the injury is. But they will be doing everything to get him back on the park,\u201d Riewoldt said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Jeremy Howe is out there, Darcy Moore is a better player and Collingwood is a two-goal better defence. He\u2019s so important for them for finals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Swans star couldn\u2019t hide his frustration after the club\u2019s \u2018disappointing\u2019 season ended. And a missing piece could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[1146,638,8406,68918,64,63,689,55,639,11175,684,651,68929,1129,68932,10143,10989,1818,12148,68930,68921,15906,30307,68923,68927,68933,13213,64906,1119,667,10145,13659,2105,2485,32923,47999,68922,38433,54127,15652,19089,1823,19125,12141,10132,18007,31732,29652,60457,68924,39320,68925,673,677,15836,68928,15826,28959,68919,15828,68936,31768,68934,701,68926,85,68935,68920,670,7200,8404,68931,1140,68917,27735,7067,698],"class_list":["post-93137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adam-simpson","tag-afl","tag-andrew-mcqualter","tag-apparent-groin-injury","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-basket-case","tag-ben-cotton","tag-brisbane","tag-challenging-one-win-season","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-chief-writer","tag-craig-mcrae","tag-darcy-moore","tag-david-king","tag-dean-cox","tag-defensive-vulnerabilities","tag-die-wondering","tag-disappointing-season","tag-don-pyke","tag-eagles-coach","tag-equalisation-business","tag-finals-opponents","tag-finals-series","tag-flag-hopes","tag-football-club","tag-footy-club","tag-garry-lyon","tag-geelong-cats","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-grand-final-appearance","tag-grand-finals","tag-groin-setback","tag-home-final","tag-horror-season","tag-integral-member","tag-jack-darling","tag-jack-riewoldt","tag-jay-clark","tag-jeremy-cameron","tag-jeremy-howe","tag-jeremy-mcgovern","tag-lance-franklin","tag-logan-mcdonald","tag-mark-metcalfe","tag-midfield-needs","tag-missing-piece","tag-missing-piece-key","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-oscar-allen","tag-pick-debate-rages","tag-premiership-contention","tag-premiership-glory","tag-premiership-race","tag-priority-pick","tag-priority-pick-debate","tag-priority-pick-help","tag-promise-land","tag-queensland","tag-reaction-post-match","tag-sports","tag-swans-coach","tag-swans-storm-home","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans","tag-tim-kelly","tag-tony-lockett","tag-trade-table","tag-turning-things","tag-veteran-defender","tag-west-coast-eagles","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93137","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=93137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}