The West Coast Eagles have today been forced to inform the WAFL that it is unable to play this weekend’s WAFL match against East Fremantle at the WACA Ground.

Such is the extent of the club’s injury list, which is compounded by a number of players entering AFL health and safety protocols it cannot meet the integrity protocols required to field a team in the WAFL competition.

As part of that criteria, the club must have at least three AFL-listed players available and it had only midfielder Zane Trew fit to take his place in the team with WAFL-listed players. Trew returned from a long-term injury last week and would have been on restricted minutes.      

West Coast Eagles Chief Executive Trevor Nisbett said the club was extremely disappointed the scheduled match against East Fremantle could not proceed this Saturday.

“It is extremely disappointing that circumstances will not allow us to fulfil this obligation because of the extenuating circumstances around player availability,” Mr Nisbett said. “We support the WAFL’s decision to postpone this match in the interests of competition integrity.

“As a result of an extensive injury list and the intervention of further COVID-19 we simply cannot field a team this weekend. We thank East Fremantle for their understanding and look forward to playing the match at the WACA Ground in the near future.”