Quick Glance at 2011: What went wrong what went right?
After winning the wooden spoon in 2010, West Coast was the most improved team in 2011, finishing fourth on the ladder with 17 wins and five losses.
Its revival last season came on the back of a revised game plan, a defensive-based structure that made the Eagles one of the hardest teams to rebound against.
Not much went wrong for the Eagles, turning coach John Worsfold from the brink of losing his job, to one of the most job-secure coaches for 2012.
Jack Darling’s injection into the forward line made West Coast so much more dangerous in 2011, forcing the opposition to find three key backs each week to stop Josh Kennedy and Quinten Lynch.
The trio kicked 111 goals between them, while the Eagles’ medium forwards Mark LeCras (47 goals) and Mark Nicoski (41) made West Coast a power team up forward. In fact, Carlton was the only other team that had three players kick more than 40 goals each for the season.
A high-tackling midfield also contributed to a dominant season, with Scott Selwood and Matt Priddis leading the competition with 202 and 193 tackles respectively for the season.
The return-to-form for Dean Cox, and the progress of Nic Naitanui made the pair the most successful hit-out combination in the AFL.
Key Player:
Josh Hill: It’s never easy coming to a new club and making an impact right from the start, but Josh Hill is to the Eagles as Andrew Krakeour was to Collingwood last season.
With Mark LeCras ruled out for the entire of 2012 with a knee injury, and Nicoksi not expected to return from a hamstring injury until mid-year, Hill must bring his goal-kicking smarts with him to the Eagles.
As mentioned earlier, West Coast had a range of goal kickers who were unstoppable in 2011, and the 80-goal loss between LeCras and Nicoski will need filling by Hill and his medium-forward colleagues.
The former Bulldog will also need to become a flexible option for the midfield, along side Andrew Gaff and Luke Shuey.
If Hill can repeat his season of 2009 (23 games and 33 goals), he will be one of the most valuable recruits in the AFL for season 2012.
3 Most important games and why?
Round 1 v Western Bulldogs Etihad Stadium
The Bulldogs are starting fresh with plans to push back into the top-eight, while the Eagles will look to jump start their season where they left off in 2011 (seven consecutive wins excluding finals). West Coast will start favourites, only just, but its record in Melbourne needs improvement. A round one win will help get that monkey off its back. The Eagles would also love Kennedy to reproduce his ten-goal effort against the Dogs.
Round 12 v Carlton Patersons Stadium
Always a huge clash with Judd and Kennedy playing off against their old sides, but with both the Eagles and Blues earmarked as clubs just outside the big three (Cats, Magpies and Hawks), the winner of this match could very well be that number four team. Scott Selwood will need to repeat his brilliant tagging effort on the Carlton captain, to keep the Blues at bay.
Round 20 v Geelong Patersons Stadium
The Eagles won this clash in round 16 last season, and need to keep that in mind when the teams clash again in Round 20. A win will take a mental edge against the Cats going into finals. A loss at home could upset their rhythm, with Collingwood and Hawthorn to face in the last two rounds of the home-and-away season.
What to expect in 2012:
The Eagles should take off where they left off, but are probably still one or two years away from peaking. With their young list gelling nicely, their pathway looks similar to that of Collingwood in 2009. They have the best ruck combination in the competition, followed by a dominant tall forward line. But it may be their young midfielders that need one or two more years in the gym before the Eagles can be a powerhouse of the competition again.
Ladder Prediction
4th-6th
Damien Ractliffe is a third year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe Univeristy.
