West Coast’s injury woes are so bad, the club is reportedly set to ask to postpone their WAFL clash just days after that side copped an embarrassing 169-point drubbing.
According to former Eagle Glen Jakovich, West Coast are concerned they won’t be able to field a side to take on East Fremantle in Round 3, such is the depth of their injury list.
Eagles footy boss Gavin Bell on Monday revealed the club’s injury toll stood somewhere between 15 and 17 players unavailable.
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Speaking on 6PR on Monday night, Jakovich said West Coast was desperate to get some assistance for their reserves – who coughed up more than 100 points to half time last weekend.
“I’ve got some news that they are possibly asking the West Australian Football Commission to postpone the game against East Fremantle at Mineral Resources (Eagles’ training base) this week given the heavy injury toll,” he said.
“I’m going to tell you now, since the 169-point loss there’s been a lot of criticism and a lot of people jumping at shadows and a lot of people with all these opinions.
“There’s words of crisis … they are only a young outfit.
“They’ve got a massive injury toll – if you can’t field the players, 11 or 12 AFL-listed players in that WAFL team, you’re a victim of what you’ve got in front of you.
“I think they’ve got the resources and the finances to get themselves out of it.
“When you’ve got to postpone a game it’s got nothing to do with the system – it’s got to do with personnel.
“From what I’m hearing, they’re going to postpone this game against East Fremantle.”
It wouldn’t be the first time a West Coast WAFL clash was postponed due to a lack of players, after Covid and injury hit hard in May last year.
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Jakovich’s comments come as WAFC chairman Wayne Martin described West Coast’s WAFL results as an “embarrassment to the competition”.
But Martin was sympathetic to the Eagles’ plight and admitted rules would be bent to provide the club as much assistance as it could.
“The result on the weekend was not good for footy, not good for the competition,” he said of West Coast’s 169-point loss to West Perth when speaking on SEN.
“We were hoping that this year West Coast’s WAFL side was going to be more competitive because frankly it was an embarrassment to the competition last year and it’s starting to look a bit the same.
“What we can do as competition is if we are approached by West Coast, we can look at possibly some rule changes to make it easier for them to bring in additional players outside their existing squad, maybe elevate some people up from amateur footy – something of that sort to make the WAFL team a bit more competitive.”
The Eagles’ standalone team looked set to be scrapped altogether at the end of 2021 after a lack of success, but a late reprieve saw them field a team for the 2022 season – after an agreement was reached over additional allowances for the club.
But they won just one game last year, with a low of 1.5 (11) against Swan Districts the worst of their outings in 2022.
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Since West Coast’s team was withdrawn from the WAFL in 2020 due to Covid, they’ve finished as wooden spooners in back-to-back seasons.
Martin said he didn’t expect any arguments from rival WAFL clubs in regards to new measures put in place to help West Coast.
“They are as aware of what we are that it’s not good for the competition to have one club so far behind the level of the other clubs,” he said.
“The injuries are very disappointing both at AFL level and WAFL level. It makes it very hard for West Coast to provide the bounce back we were hoping they would provide.”
Bell said the club “don’t like losing like we did” where they coughed up more than 100 points to half time on Saturday.
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But he felt the AFL squad’s injury toll was creating a “ripple effect” on the lower league.
To add insult to injury, prized first round pick Elijah Hewett limped off in the opening seconds of that 169-point loss, after being sent back to the WAFL to find form.
The club has confirmed he and teammate Elliot Yeo (groin) went for scans on Monday.
The Eagles are already without skipper Luke Shuey, Jeremy McGovern, Nic Naitanui, Jamie Cripps, Liam Ryan, Campbell Chesser, Dom Sheed, Callum Jamieson and Tom Cole.
