The case for and against the West Coast Eagles receiving priority picks from the AFL at next year’s draft

West Coast are now set to ask the AFL for priority picks for the first time in the club’s history, but debate rages over whether they should be given help. The West Australian’s Jackson Barrett has taken a look at both sides of the argument. The case against … You dig a hole, you fill it up. That’s the heart of the case for why West Coast should not be given assistance by the league at this year’s draft to give them a hand out of the hole they have found themselves in. The Eagles had one bite too many at trying to compete at the top end of the ladder and are still paying the price. That’s something even premiership coach Adam Simpson has admitted recently. It is also easy to point to the Eagles’ Tim Kelly trade in an assessment of their past five years. They parted with picks 14, 24 and 33 in the 2019 draft and a first-rounder the following year to bring Kelly to the club. Three of those players would now be in their fifth year and one would be in his fourth. Kelly’s form has been poor this season and he has been dropped to the club’s WAFL side twice, as well as being pushed out of the midfield. The AFL is set up as well as any other league in the world to promote equalisation. There are methods in place — primarily the draft and free-agency compensation — in place for clubs to bounce back quickly, they just have to make the call. While there is still a salary cap and a soft cap, West Coast are one of the strongest clubs in the land financially and do have the opportunity to pay the tax to splash the cash on its football department. The Eagles completely snubbed the draft for a decade. In the 11 years before 2022, the club did not take a single top-10 draft pick. A whopping 22 top-tenners went to Greater Western Sydney in the same period. Since then they have taken Harley Reid and Reuben Ginbey inside the top 10. They will be good players, maybe great, but it is early days. The gap in their draft history directly reflects the gulf on their list, players entering the prime of their career. Why did they shirk the draft for quite so long? This quote from then-chairman Russell Gibbs to The West Australian before the 2022 season might give you an idea. “(A rebuild) would not be acceptable to our membership,” he said. “And I think our history would suggest that has never been the case. We just continually try to refresh the group. “Whereas other clubs choose, for their own reasons, to do a full rebuild.” The case for … West Coast have been really, really bad for a long time. They have won just 11 games in their past four seasons. Brisbane had won 31 games in the four years before they were handed a priority pick ahead of the 2016 season. North Melbourne had 12 wins to their name through four years before they were helped at the 2023 draft. The AFL’s own baby, Gold Coast, were handed the most comprehensive rescue parachute in the game’s history for three years from 2019. They had won 19 games in the same timeframe before their unprecedented handout. By that measure, the AFL simply cannot ignore West Coast’s looming request. If they don’t receive assistance, the priority pick concept might as well be packed up. And while much of their predicament is of their own doing, the Eagles have been struck down by a decent dose of bad luck. In June, Jeremy McGovern became the fourth player at the club forced into a medical retirement, joining premiership player Daniel Venables, All-Australia backman Brad Sheppard and Luke Edwards on the sidelines. No other club has had as many players forced to retire because of concussion. While the scourge of soft tissue injuries at the club in recent seasons can be put down to club doctors, the concussions simply cannot. The Eagles were hit hard by COVID too, with Western Australia’s uber-tight restrictions and the league-high number of players being forced out of games. There is a decent whack of bad luck in that too. And now that West Coast have turned their heads towards the draft, they are trying to pluck talent out of the most compromised pools we have ever seen. Father-son and academy selections meant that the Eagles’ second-round pick — which ended up being Jobe Shanahan — landed as far back as No.30. They are also likely to still be bringing in youngsters when Tasmania enters drafts in 2027.