As a red and gold hue surrounded stoppages at Optus Stadium last Friday, invariably breaking away from the congestion with blurring speed it was impossible not to be captivated.
Generally departing the traffic with ball in hand were Matt Rowell or Noah Anderson.
As much as one’s heart sank as Gold Coast took charge, particularly in the second quarter blitz, those two young stars taken with the top selections in the 2019 draft, were simply dynamic.
Finding a positive was nigh on impossible. But getting a front row seat to the action was Reuben Ginbey, a strong, powerful athlete in his first season at the West Coast Eagles. While he could do little to thwart the impact of Gold Coast’s clearance kings, he certainly would have been taking mental notes.
Ginbey, the Eagles’ first selection in the 2022 draft at #9 and one of only three top 10 selections on the club’s playing list (Nic Naitanui #2 in 2008 and Andrew Gaff #4 in 2010 are the others) looms as centre piece of the club’s future.
Casting an eye over the respective line-ups there was a clear delineation between a team on the rise and another in the mode of building the foundations towards another tilt at finals success.
The Eagles last won a premiership in 2018 and there were just four members of the glorious team in this battle. The vast majority are young players in their infancy.
Gold Coast entered the competition as an expansion club in 2011 and they are hoping Rowell and Anderson can lead them to their first finals series. Over the last 12 years they have had unfettered access to the best talent in the country but have had trouble keeping them in south-east Queensland.
Best mates Rowell and Anderson appear intent on bucking the trend of players who fulfil the obligations of their initial contract and are then lured to another destination.
Aside from that pair, the Suns have six other first round selections recruited to their list since the 2018 ballot. Four of them who were all inside the top six of their draft year – Ben King, Jack Lukosius, Mac Andrew and Bailey Humphrey – were key figures in Friday’s victory.
The Eagles have just three first round selections since 2019, with Ginbey and Elijah Hewett arriving in November, 12 months after Campbell Chesser.
Obviously part of the reason for that dearth of high end talent was the trade for Tim Kelly as the Eagles topped up their list in the hope of securing another flag while the premiership window was open. Unfortunately the stars have not aligned despite Kelly’s output since arrival.
While Ginbey, Hewett and Chesser are the high end talent, the club is also optimistic that Brady Hough (#31 in 2021) Rhett Bazzo (#37) and Jack Williams (#57) have bright futures. The same could be said of Harry Barnett (#23), Coby Burgiel (#29) and Noah Long (#58) who arrived via last year’s draft.
The development of some of those young players has been stymied to some extent because they have not enjoyed the luxury of having some seniority around them to guide them through the challenging periods in matches.
With a little luck the footy gods will consider West Coast has suffered enough through a pandemic and an injury epidemic and smile upon it in the second half of this year.
The Eagles will glean as many wins as possible in the next 14 weeks and will use whatever draft hand it is dealt, to again top of with young talent.
In essence it is around the half-way mark of a rebuild.
As it currently stands the Eagles have four picks inside the top 40 (2, 20, 33 and 38). The third selection was received from Port Adelaide as part of the Junior Rioli trade.
Tomorrow against Hawthorn in Launceston the Eagles will look to secure their second win of the season. It is an important step towards a strong second half of the year before scanning the talent available in the 2023 draft pool and putting the next series of building blocks in place.
