In season 2022 the West Coast Eagles have used 47 senior players.
It is the most players to play for one club in one season across the AFL era.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson knows 46 of the players but there is one who donned the colours, got in and out, and his coach was basically none the wiser.
It happened in Round 8 when Simpson missed the Brisbane clash due to COVID and Matthew Knights oversaw the Eagles at the Gabba.
There were eight player changes made due to health and safety protocols and injury.
One of those changes was the inclusion of top-up player Jake Florenca who came out of the WAFL with South Fremantle to make his AFL debut for West Coast.
The most bizarre aspect of an already strange situation was that Simpson, his head coach, never got to meet 25-year-old Florenca.
“There’s one player who played with us, I had COVID, and I never met him,” Simpson said on Sportsday.
“Florenca, I think his name was.
“We spoke on the phone.
“He had 19 possessions and we lost by 80 (75) points.”
It was a fair debut for Florenca who had 13 contested possessions, laid a team-high seven tackles and had four clearances to go along with his 19 touches.
It has somewhat been the tale of the season for the Eagles who were decimated by COVID and injury earlier in the campaign and were never able to get going.
On the bright side, Simpson says the fact they’ve used so many players has given them plenty to look at from a list profile point of view.
“You can look at our season in two ways,” he added.
“One, the disappointment and we fell very short of what we anticipated we’d get to. But there’s been reasons and there’s also been no excuses in some areas as well.
“We’ve well and truly identified our list and where it’s at, so that’s been pleasing that everyone has got opportunity. There’s no arguments when you make list decisions and everyone has played.
“We’ve adapted as best we can. Since the bye we’ve been a lot more competitive without the results.
“On the weekend (against Fremantle) we must have been missing 10 or 12 players and I thought we competed as hard as we could and held on for as long as we could.”
The Eagles, who own a 2-19 win-loss record, will wrap up their 2022 season against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday.
And what of Florenca since his brief AFL flirt?
He suffered a serious hamstring injury back in Round 8 of the WAFL season and has not played since.
The star Bulldogs midfielder is being earmarked to return for finals with his club currently sitting fourth on the ladder.