It was mid-February, the sun was shining and there was a buzz on the ground floor of Mineral Resources Park.

Players were in match day kit. It signalled the end of the pre-season grind. Months of sweat and toil had been about this moment; the transition from training to playing.

It was only an intra-club practice game, but it was a step up from the match simulation drills. Players were excited, coaches keen to see training form manifest itself in a more competitive environment.

All anyone really wanted was for the squad to emerge unscathed from the hit out. It didn’t happen.

Late in the game, after attempting a regulation tackle, star forward Jamie Cripps lay on the ground clutching his right pectoral. Concerned players hovered around their popular teammate, calling for assistance.

After several minutes Cripps rose from the deck, cradling his damaged wing in his jumper as he trudged forlornly back to the medical room. In the ensuing days he would learn the worst, surgery was required.

And that was the start of what has been annus horibilis for the West Coast Eagles. There was a string of devastating long-term injuries in the next 10 days. Campbell Chesser lasted a minute in a practice game against Fremantle, Dom Sheed only marginally longer.

In the same game, Elliot Yeo suffered a high grade calf strain and recruit Samo Petrevski-Seton suffered a knee injury. Days later a hot spot had again flared in the foot of young gun Oscar Allen, a major setback.

Then, at training, premiership defender Tom Cole went down with a serious ankle issue. Chesser, the club’s draft pick, Allen and Cole would play no part in the 2022 campaign.

Sheed would add just one game to his career total while Cripps did resume in round five but was underdone.

Even supplementary list selection midfielder Tom Joyce, recruited to help relieve the injury crisis, was not spared. An innocuous ankle injury at training in the lead-up to round one, when he was in-line to debut, has subsequently denied him the opportunity to play at all.

We knew COVID was coming, we didn’t need an injury pandemic as well. The Eagles had already delved into the ‘In case of emergency break glass’ cabinet by using a handful of top-up players from the WAFL.  

Then, young midfielder Luke Edwards, a bright prospect was subbed out of the round four victory against Collingwood with the recurrence of a groin injury. His season would be done in the second week of April.

A campaign of promise had disintegrated in the space of six weeks. The season had barely started and the opportunity to retrieve the situation and compete for finals was already remote. Merely competing was a challenge. 

The result is that with two games remaining, the Eagles are staring at their lowest winning effort in history. It currently sits at two wins with today’s RAC Derby and a round 23 closer against Geelong to come.   

It will take a herculean effort to match the four wins achieved in 2010 – the only time the Eagles have finished at the foot of the premiership table.

The club is in unusual territory. Not completely foreign, but a position to which it is unaccustomed.

It is fighting to stave off another bottom rung finish. The Eagles can’t finish any higher, but they can slide from 17^th.

Technically, regardless of what happens in the next eight days the Eagles will finish at their lowest point in any season. In 2010 when they ‘won’ the wooden spoon there were only 16 teams in the competition, with Gold Coast joining in 2011.         

When comparisons are made between 2010 and 2022, historians would be remiss to examine each campaign based purely on wins and losses.

This season has had more challenges than any other in the club’s 36 years. It has needed to call on 47 players, including five who are not even listed and there has been 16 players make their debut. It has been extraordinary.

In 2010 the club focused on remedying a fractured culture; winning was secondary. This year winning has been aim but a lack of personnel has been a critical impediment.