West Coast’s desire to seek an additional home game in Perth is “just another layer of this club looking for an out publicly when it comes to ‘woe is us’”, according to veteran AFL reporter Damien Barrett.
Eagles football boss Gavin Bell earlier this week said his club would ask the AFL to hand it an extra home game as compensation due to the extra travel created by Gather Round, which will be held in South Australia for the next three seasons after its state government struck a deal with the AFL.
Bell said West Coast and Fremantle travelled over 57,000km last year, while “some Victorian teams travelled less than 15,000km”.
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“We want to bring an eastern states team over for another home game in front of our members and supporters. If we’re going to play an extra game in the year, it would be great to balance that off,” Bell told The West Australian
“Wherever Gather Round is held outside of WA, we don’t want to be disadvantaged given our travel requirements that already exist. If we can offset that with an extra game at Optus that would be ideal.
“Maybe instead of it being home and away games it should be the number of games travelled.”
But speaking on Channel 9’s Footy Classified on Monday night, Barrett said the public complaints from the Eagles were starting to add up.
“They were the big ‘mopers’ of 2020 and 2021 when it came to those Covid years of football and then they just had the disastrous season of last year – and now we get to this point,” Barrett told Footy Classified.
“I can empathise with what Gavin Bell is saying here as footy boss about the Gather Round being a disadvantage to WA. I understand that and would make that claim and comment to private people in the AFL.
“But for that to be public again, to me it’s just another layer of this club looking for an out publicly when it comes to ‘woe is us’. I may be in the minority on that, but I’ve seen it now for three and a half seasons to this point.”
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Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire added: “Misery loves company and it can eat into your system. Where or not it is, I don’t know, but I’ve seen it at plenty of other places.”
Bell’s comments come with the Eagles in the midst of a significant injury crisis, with Simpson on Wednesday revealing the club would pick its 23-man squad for Saturday‘s match against Port Adelaide from “around 24” players. That would leave 20 on a growing injury list.
Eagles captain Luke Shuey will return, but veteran defender Shannon Hurn won’t return as he battles hamstring problems and first-year forward Noah Long (general soreness) is also likely to miss.
Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd pointed out West Coast had actually lost more games than North Melbourne in the past 30 home and away rounds, with the Eagles winning just three matches compared to the Kangaroos’ four.
West Coast Eagles Press Conference | 09:06
Lloyd then highlighted the longevity some Eagles figures have had in key roles at the club, particularly chief executive Trevor Nisbett – who’s been the chief executive since 1999. Adam Simpson is also in his 10th season as West Coast coach, while football operations manager Gavin Bell has been at the club for 15 years – albeit only two heading up the football department.
“I just wonder whether it‘s time for some fresh voices and fresh ideas at the West Coast Eagles,” Lloyd told Footy Classified.
“When you look at the key guys – yes they’ve been unlucky and their season is over at Round 5, which you hate – you just wonder whether it is a comfortable place where it‘s time for some fresh voices.
“They have been wonderful servants, all these guys, at their football club. But whether like we’ve seen Ross Lyon (at St Kilda), Brad Scott (at Essendon) … we need some fresh voices.”
Simpson lamented another horror injury run at his club, but pointed out many of his players were sidelined due to impact or collisions.
“Up until three weeks we were really happy with the health of the list, the pre-season, the fitness, I think we all saw the way the guys turned up and how they attacked the pre-season. It’s literally the last three weeks and that’s footy. We will look at everything but at the moment we are just trying to get on with footy,” Simpson told reporters.
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“This year has been a cluster. Three weeks ago we had four injuries.
“And we are not the only club. There are other clubs dealing with this as well. It has just happened to us two years in a row, which you are always trying to get better at. There are some things there we just can’t avoid.”
Asked whether this year had been tougher in the Eagles’ hot seat, Simpson said: “It’s not tough, it’s just the job. I’m not complaining. We’re on a path and journey and this is just a moment in time. It doesn’t change our projection and what we’re chasing.”
