Roman artisans were the first to manufacture mirrors thinking gods observed souls through these newly designed polished metal surfaces.
It was new technology at the time and believed to be disrespectful to the gods if one was to break a mirror, bringing seven years of bad luck.
Liam Ryan gets help from the trainers before coming off the field in Sunday’s western derby.Credit:Getty Images
Who broke the mirror at Lathlain last week? For the Eagles in derby 56, it wasn’t seven years, but seven players.
First Luke Shuey (hamstring), then Campbell Chesser (knee). Next it was Jeremy McGovern (hamstring), then Alex Witherden (concussion/ribs). All injured before half time.
In the third quarter it was Jamie Cripps (ankle) and Liam Ryan (hamstring). Oscar Allen was also being monitored for a (lesser) knee complaint.
At three-quarter time, West Coast’s team looked more like a hospital casualty ward than it did an AFL huddle.
With all this carnage, you can now write off West Coast making the finals. If it was hard at the start of the season with a fully fit list, it is now near impossible.
The Eagles will focus on the positives – which there are plenty of at the moment, with a new game style and the youth coming through – but for a team closer to the beginning of their rebuild than the end, not having senior players out there to help guide the younger players could mean another long year for fans.
That said, hope springs eternal and coach Adam Simpson now finds himself with an opportunity to truly test his list and see which of his players will make it at the AFL level.
Thrown into the deep end, which young players will sink or swim?
First-year players Reuben Ginbey, Noah Long and Elijah Hewett all look the part, particularly Ginbey, who plays older than his 18 years suggest, earning himself a thoroughly deserved rising star nominee after his 20-disposal, eight-tackle derby performance.
Can Harry Edwards team with Tom Barrass and make it as a long-term key defender? Is Jack Petruccelle ready to cement a place as a permanent small forward? And who out of Jai Culley, Connor West, Greg Clark, Xavier O’Neill and Zane Trew is going to make it as AFL midfielders?
All questions West Coast will now get to learn over the next 20 weeks.
You feel for skipper Shuey who, after a methodical pre-season and great start to the year, has again been crippled by a soft tissue injury.
The cliff comes quickly in the AFL, be it form or your body failing you. And as much as we’d love to see the 2018 Norm Smith medallist get back to his best and play a lengthy stretch without injury, right now his toes are on the edge of a potentially very slippery slope.
Jeremy McGovern hobbles off the field on Sunday.Credit:AFL Photos
Vice captain McGovern will miss months on the sidelines for a second straight year with a hamstring tendon repair, while Cripps – a veteran small forward and crucial cog in West Coast’s forward line who works as hard as any other Eagle – has already had surgery on a broken ankle.
Ryan also likely to have a surgical repair on his hamstring.
While for Chesser, it’s another six to eight weeks on the sidelines with a medial ligament strain in his knee – a bitter blow, setting both he and the club back in their quest to get out of this rebuild mode.
Simpson went to the bench in the second half of the derby to better communicate to the few players he had left available and overworked support staff.
You could see him transition from caged lion desperate for a kill of his crosstown rival, to proud dad of those who were left standing just trying their best under fatigue and duress.
If you don’t laugh, you cry.
The footy gods are said to always have their revenge eventually. West Coast will be hoping that some good luck is just around the corner.
