What has been a bad pre-season only got worse for West Coast over the weekend.
Brad Sheppard retired late last year, Jack Darling is unavailable, Oscar Allen is in a moon boot, Jamie Cripps is nursing a torn pectoral muscle, captain Luke Shuey has another soft tissue injury and Liam Duggan is still recovering from off-season surgery.
Friday’s intra-club threw up a couple of other problems with WAFL recruit Greg Clark, who was tracking for a round one debut, cut down by an AC joint injury and former Carlton defender Sam Petrevski-Seton copping a knock on his knee.
It prompted a fairly bold prediction from Kane Cornes.
“Bottom four for the Eagles, I’m calling it,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“They’re in all sorts.”
The Eagles have not finished in the bottom part of the ladder since their wooden spoon back in 2010.
Co-host Sam Edmund further assessed the predicament that the Eagles find themselves in less than a month out from the 2022 season.
“(They are in) big trouble personnel wise,” Edmund said.
“Not a week goes by where there’s not a couple added to the casualty list.”
Eagles coach Adam Simpson is attempting to find someone to fill the attacking void left by the unvaccinated Darling while youngster Allen is out of action.
He threw key defender Tom Barrass forward in the intra-club match, but is he the answer considering he is yet to kick a goal in 99 AFL matches?
“One thing with all these personnel issues, with them losing Jack Darling for the moment, with Josh Kennedy carefully monitored and his loading not being overdone, is they’ve taken to experimenting in the front half,” Edmund added.
“Tom Barrass played forward in Friday’s intra-club. The assumption is that he looms as Jack Darling’s potential replacement. Funnily enough, he holds the record for the most games played as an Eagle never to kick an AFL goal. He actually sits third all-time behind Jamie Shanahan and Tom Clurey.
“We know he can take a big mark, but swingmen who work going forward? We know they work going back, but going forward would be much harder.”
Cornes gave his assessment of the idea of Barrass playing forward.
“Clubs do get a bit funky during the pre-season and come up with positional moves that sometimes just don’t work,” he said.
“I don’t see one little bit of Tom Barrass that says to me he’s a forward. He’s a player, to me, that is genuinely strong one on one, beats his opponent first but then is good in the air and can read it and intercept mark the footy.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of success for Tom up forward, is my view on it.”
Simpson’s side dropped out of the eight last year, finishing ninth after six straight seasons in the finals.
The Eagles meet Fremantle in a practice match at Optus Stadium this Friday before again clashing with the Dockers in the AAMI Community Series at Fremantle Oval on March 6.
They take on Gold Coast at home in Round 1 on March 20.