Okay, pack it all away. Roll up the big top. We’re outta here!
Three games in, season’s done. Wasting our time. Apparently.
And no one cares anyway. We haven’t shown the pandemic enough respect, the RAC Derby has lost its relevance. Rivalry? Pfffttt. It’s got nothing on Adelaide’s Showdown.
If we were to believe the ‘experts’, those wise pundits east of the border, the West Coast Eagles and all of their fans might as well get the first available flights to Bali. Go and chase the sun. We’re wasting our time.
Excuse the sarcasm, but the negativity – from outside the tent – after three rounds is extraordinary.
Clearly there is a lack of understanding about this footy club and the principles for which it stands. As long as there is a pulse there is hope. And an important part of the mantra is to make the members and fans proud.
The Eagles turning up its collective toes and riding out the next five months simply is not on the radar.
Obviously at 0-3 the degree of difficulty in finding a way to the finals series has become somewhat more challenging. Not impossible, just tougher.
To play finals you probably need to bat at a little better than .50. So to get things back on track, the Eagles might need to win three games in succession at some stage in the season. With 19 games left that is no pipedream.
It might take a couple of blocks of consecutive victories, but it’s not like that’s asking the club to wave a wand and send COVID into the ether.
Generally, the Eagles are pretty good at home. So that’s do-able. Absolutely.
A fair bit will need to go right and it might take a few weeks, even with the return of some senior stars starting to filter back, to play at their best. But everyone internally knows this current trend is reversible.
No one is throwing their hands in the air saying ‘they’re right. This is too hard, let’s go.’
The players are working hard on the track, the fitness and medical teams are doing everything to arrest the long list of players who have been unavailable. Together with the coaching staff they are planning ways to win.
There is no sense of resignation; that recovery is out of the question. Every minute of every day they plot a way forward, even though they have been handcuffed with hitherto unprecedented levels of senior players out of action.
There have already been 10 club debutants this season – five of them Covid contingency list players. And 38 players have worn the blue and gold strip in battle.
Last season – across 22 games – there were 35 players who had a taste of senior football; five of them were debutants.
In 2020 when the club spent two months in a Queensland hub believing it had been decimated by injuries, 36 players were used and eight represented the Eagles for the first time.
In the premiership year of 2018 only 32 players were called upon – nine of them playing senior football for the first time.
Not since 2010, when the club finished at the foot of the table, has it used 38 players. And remember that was across a full season.
And the 10 debutants to round three this year is the most in a season since 2001 when 13 players represented the club for the first time. That was the season coach Ken Judge brought in a host of players from other clubs including David Sierakowski, Greg Harding, Richard Taylor, Mark Merenda, Trent Carroll and Brent Tuckey.
On Thursday night at selection ‘just’ five changes were made. At the risk of being prematurely optimistic maybe this is a sign the worst of the pandemic has been manoeuvred.
Regardless, inside the club there is a resolve to right the listing ship. Through unwavering belief, unity and spirit it’s possible. After all we’re just a couple of paces into this AFL journey of a thousand miles.
