The Wild Wild West Arrogance

Senior Player Arrogance, Underworld links, Drug and Alcohol abuse, bad language in public places. That sums up the West Coast Eagles.

The Internal Inquiry into the West Coast Eagles off field behaviour has been made public. After reading the report it certainly highlighted to me the arrogance that is widely associated with the West Coast Eagles Football Club. The Eagles are well known for their reputation off the field both here and overseas and in particular Ben Cousins, as you can read here and also here. The Eagles now have a very bad reputation and I can’t see them breaking that any time soon.

The senior leadership group which would have included Ben Cousins, Michael Gardiner, Chad Fletcher, and Daniel Kerr had a lot of influence over the rest of the playing group at the time and should have pulled into line much sooner than they were. 35 separate incidents (involving 13 players) which were highlighted as matters of poor off-field behaviour. Including links between players and underworld figures, assaults, drug and alcohol abuse and inappropriate language in public. It also revealed poor behaviour by two Eagles players during drug tests last year and poor behaviour by some players during AFL education sessions.Yet the Eagles board and coaching staff seemed to have tried to sweep these under the carpet to some extent. They were performing well on the field and I don’t think they wanted to mess with that. As we have seen recently if clubs fail to act in appropriate manner and let these players basically get a way with it then things can get ugly just ask North Melbourne and Wayne Carey who was given basically a free reign at the time. Read more

Cox Gets an Extension

Sorry I couldn’t help but give this post that title, I am sure there are lots more out there as well. But seriously great news for the West Coast Eagles with superstar Ruckman and member of the new look Eagles leadership group Dean Cox signing a new contract with the West Coast Eagles until 2011. Considering the big fella is 26 you would think that he will now be an Eagles for life. He is the best ruckman in the business and the Eagles have made it quite clear that he is by the length of the contract. You don’t see many long contracts these days and it shows how much the Eagles rate him as a player and as a person.

Cox played 21 games in 2007 averaging 23 hit outs a game clearly in front of the next best for the Eagles (Mark Seaby - 12.75). not only that he was second only to the man mountain Aaron Sandilands who averaged a whopping 26.9. But it is not just in the hitouts that makes Cox a valuable big man it is his ability to run and get a lot of the ball around the ground that sets him apart. He averages just under 19 posessions a game compared to a Sandilands who averages around 12.6. And when you consider he had an outstanding 27 disposals (17 kicks and 10 handballs), 9 marks, 29 hitouts and a goal in West Coasts loss to Collingwood in the Second Semi last year. It proves he can perform when it counts.

Quality player and a great deal for the Eagles. Mind you Cox would be more than happy with a lazy $700,000 per year also.

West Coast Eagles - Life after Judd and Cousins

The West Coast Eagles Football Club will undoubtedly want to erase the year 2007 from the books, not from a on field perspective but certainly from an off field one. We all know of the turmoil surrounding the Eagles in 07 so there is no need to go through it all again. I will though mention that the Eagles are doing their best to try and turn the culture around over there by instilling a new leadership group, but it doesn’t seem to be having much of an impact if you take into account the recent incident with their number one draft pick Chris Masten.

Let’s go thorough the arrivals and departures for the Eagles:

ADDITIONS:

Exchange period – received: Josh J. Kennedy (Carlton)
Rookie elevation: Chad Jones, Jamie McNamara
Scholarship elevation: Ryan Davis (rookie)
NAB AFL Draft: Brad Ebert (Port Adelaide Magpies), Chris Masten (East Fremantle), Tony Notte (Swan Districts), Scott Selwood (Bendigo Pioneers)

DELETIONS:

Retired: Rowan Jones, Josh Wooden
Exchange period – traded: Chris Judd (Carlton), Mitch Morton (Richmond)
Delisted: Daniel Chick, Ashley Sampi, Ben Sharp (rookie), Llane Spaanderman (rookie), Ashley Thornton (rookie), Beau Wilkes (rookie)

The West Coast Eagles had a very good year on field considering all the other dramas they had. Finishing 3rd and losing to Collingwood by 19 points in the Second Semi Final. A disappointing exit considering that game was at Subiaco. The have certainly got some quality losses to cover and any team that loses player of the calibre of Jud and Cousins you would think would struggle. The big question is can the others step up to the plate and take the reigns? The likes of Kerr, Embley, Priddis, Fletcher and Stenglein are the players that will need to create havoc in the middle.

Best Ruckman in the AFL

With the best Ruckman in the business in Dean Cox and being the 3rd best team in terms of hit outs these players will no doubt get their hand on the pill first on a lot of occasions. Priddis has already shown he is a quality player that can find the ball with ease (leading disposal getter) I reckon he just needs to be more damaging when he gets it. Kerr is a GUN, his ability to stand his ground when being tackled and get the ball to a team mate is brilliant and he will have to be the take the Number 1 midfield role you would think. The Eagles have at least 10-11 players they could rotate through there, and when you look at the stats from 2007 there were 11 players that averaged more than 20 possessions a game! With Mark Seaby having a great pre season the midfield of the Eagles is looking dangerous even with out Cousins and Judd. Read more

West Coast Eagles Player Does it Again

The start of a new year and nothing has changed over in the West. What is the go over there? This time their prized first Draft Pick Chris Masten was issued with a “move on” order from police at the Australia Day Skyworks celebration on the Perth foreshore on Saturday night. The Club has said they are very disappointed. I think they may be a bit more than disappointed , after all they have been trying to do over there to reverse the “culture issues” and then their first year draft pick goes and does something silly like this then they would be fuming!

It will be interesting to see how the Eagles handle this one, with all that is made of double standards in football clubs at the moment how will the new Eagles Leadership Team handle this one?

Watch that one with interest.

AFL Players need to evolve as people

This is quite a common theme coming form the AFL Clubs and Coaches at the moment. AFL Footballers are so caught up in the intense nature of AFL Football that they forget about life outside football. Mark Harvey is just one of many coaches that is going to give his Fremantle Dockers players some experiences that will be “fairly traumatic”. AFL Clubs are all about giving their players life experiences these days but does this really have an impact on the players?

Recently John Worsfold and the West Coast Eagles made a trip to South Africa to promote the game of AFL Football and also to give the players
an “understanding about what opportunities they have delivered to themselves, regardless of being footballers, by living in Australia,”. I guess the Eagles are trying to change the culture and behavioral issues they seem to have. Worsfold was quoted as saying:

“I think it was eye-opening for them, and some of them were probably shocked by what they saw and smelled and heard, but they all coped with it extremely well.”

I just wonder if when the players get back from these sort of “life changing” trips and camps they actually do appreciate where they are and the privlidge they have. I mean a couple of weeks after being back and doing another 10-15 gruelling pre season sessions do they even remember the reason of the trip they were on or are they back to their old self and tangled up in the hype of being an AFL Footballer?

It will be interesting to observe the impact these types of trips have on, not only the Eagles, but also the Dockers because they themselves have some off field cultural issue they have to deal with.