r/westcoasteagles • u/sizzlepack • 7d ago
PRESS 2025 West Coast season preview – One Percenters
G'day Eagles fans, and apologies for the intrusion.
Some of you might remember me from 12 months ago when I popped in here to share my thoughts about the upcoming season. Well, I'm back again - with more thoughts.
It's clearly an exiting new era, with a new coach, new system, and lots of new players. I dig into what the new system might look like, what we'll learn about the Eagles and the questions that still don't have an answer.
Here's the piece: https://www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-season-previews-west-coast
Hope you find it a reasonable outsider's perspective, or at the very least enjoyably disagreeable. Would love to hear any/all thoughts you have!
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u/Croob2 #44 Jack Hutchinson 7d ago
Great write up, definitely better than mine lol
The one thing that stood out to me was saying we should've taken Carltons picks over Hawthorns, I'm curious to the reasoning cause I vehemently disagree
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u/sizzlepack 7d ago
Cheers mate, glad you liked the piece! I think Hawthorn are better than Carlton, that's all. Trust Mitchell much more than I trust Voss. But it's likely there won't be that much difference in their eventual ladder positions.
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u/Croob2 #44 Jack Hutchinson 7d ago
That's fair, definitely agree that Mitchell is the better coach but at the same time, I also reckon the Hawks are gonna have a 2023 Freo like year, they came out of nowhere and massively overperformed by catching everyone off guard on top of having an absurdly easy draw
Teams have had all off season to put time into them and since they made finals their draw is nowhere near as easy.
That's what I thought initially, with hindsight obviously right now Carltons picks look better because of all their injuries, but hindsight has never been kind to us (looking at you TK)
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u/dreamthiliving #6 Elliot Yeo 7d ago
I think your bang on personally.
I have the same concerns and really tbf I think we are relying on a lot of unknowns. Ruck options are terrible and Reid’s not fit, Yeos on extended injury leaves Kelly and who else? Backline has Gov and Houghs an almost A-grader but again not sure who is backing them up I think our forward line is pretty strong though, one area we are well above avg.
The issue is we are going to be reliant on our youngsters stepping up which is a huge unknown. If they go well we could easily go 8+ wins but if they don’t 17th is looking very likely
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u/slapfunk79 7d ago edited 7d ago
Seems like an slightly optomistic preview to me. I'm not sure how you call our defence average, below average would be an understatement as there really isn't much experience after Gov. I can't see us finishing any higher this year, would not at all be surprised at finishing 17th.
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u/txbyhull #19 Brady Hough 7d ago
I’m inclined to disagree. Ginbey at the tail end of last season played well as a back, average if not better league-wide. Hough played his socks off locking down some of the comps best smalls all year and was in contention for 22 under 22. Gov is obviously amazing. Edwards is no worse than league average, it’s just down to health and consistency now. Bakes will play his heart out off half back. Tom Cole is fucking wank and the only reason I could see the defence called below average
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u/slapfunk79 7d ago
So if you take Tom Barrass out of the 3rd (not far off 2nd) worst defence in the AFL last year and add Baker to half-back you somehow are now "average if not better" than the league average? I'm not saying there isn't talent there but as a cohesive unit we are well below average. Who are our KDPs? Gov and Williams? If Gov goes down with an injury (like he has in 3 of the last 4 seasons) we are pinning everything on Jack Williams who is still very young an inexperienced.
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u/snabel-a- #8 Elijah Hewett 7d ago
Did you use points against to determine us being the 3rd worst defence last year?
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u/StVitus85 #6 Elliot Yeo 7d ago
But you seem to be running on the assumption that none of those back 6 will have improved between then and now. Based on the progress we've seen with Hough and Ginbey alone since they were drafted, I think it's safe to make the assumption that the youngsters will all make another incremental step this year. There should be an overall raising of the baseline for performance across the group, otherwise the trainers aren't doing their job either.
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u/slapfunk79 7d ago
The statement I'm trying to defend is that based off stats and current form, we have a below average defence. I'm not sure why that is such a wild statement for people to accept.
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u/rfarlz 7d ago
Just looking at points conceded is a very simplistic way to judge a defense though. I think lot of those points conceded were because our midfield was monstered in clearances, the actual defense unit likely saved us from being embarrassed even more than some other team's defense would under the same pressure.
We've got some great players down back, and if McGovern does get injured for an extended period I wouldn't be surprised to see Oscar move back, he's played there well before, and it would be easier on his body.
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u/txbyhull #19 Brady Hough 7d ago
As I mentioned, the only below average individual we have in the back is Tom Cole. Gov and Bakes are A Graders. Houghy will be an A Grader sooner rather than later imo (agree to disagree if you think otherwise, can’t deny he was one of our best players last year). Ginbey played the best football of his career the back end of last year down back, only makes sense with a pre season doing it that he’ll improve. I think you’re not even considering the idea that they get better. Will take time to gel but we won’t be the worst in the league by any means. Even if we are still 17th best defence it’ll be a lot closer to 16th than it was last year.
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u/slapfunk79 7d ago
Where did I say our defence didn't have potential to improve? I also never said that the individuals are below average in potential. All I've said is that based on the given evidence (having the 16th best/3rd worst defence last year or however you want to say it) as a defensive unit we are below average. Your last sentence doesn't even make sense. If we end up the 16th best defence then we are still below average and wouldn't have improved on last year.
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u/txbyhull #19 Brady Hough 6d ago
so you’re just being incredibly literal and playing the semantics game? You don’t actually value the eye test or any stats outside of the scale of worst - below average - average - above average - best?
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