West Coast coach Andrew McQualter is overseeing a changing of the guard in the Eagles’ midfield, turning to youth as he looks to fix their clearance woes for the long-term.
In the matter of only five games McQualter has overhauled the centre bounce structure, blooding a new era as he stamps his mark at the club.
The Eagles started the year with a Jack Graham, Tim Kelly, Harley Reid and co-captain Liam Duggan as their go-to midfield.
But against Carlton on Saturday, it was a young mix dominated by Jack Hutchinson, Tom Gross and Clay Hall who have all played less than 10 games but are entrusted to play at the coalface.
Even defender Brady Hough went in there seven times in the second half as McQualter continues to test the versatility of his squad.
It was vastly different from pre-season plans for McQualter, with a mix of injuries and poor form from senior players forcing a re-think.
Elliot Yeo is yet to play this game because a pre-season ankle and knee injury and isn’t set to be back until mid-season, stripping the Eagles of their best contested beast.
And their second-best midfielder in Kelly has been dropped to the WAFL for the first time in his 100-game after struggling to start the season.
Reid and Duggan have been pushed into defence to find form, while Graham has been moved to half forward to try to stop opposition sides from attacking out of the back half with ease.
It left a a young Eagles midfield led by Liam Baker to battle the likes of experienced Blues in dual Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps, George Hewett and Adam Cerra.
“We had an incredibly young midfield, and they had a very experienced midfield, and we got to learn a lot,” McQualter said.
“Clearly contested ball at minus 60 is not at a level where we’re ever going to be able to compete
“We’re under no illusions where we’re at, we’ve got a lot of work to do and there’s only one way to keep doing that work, we’ve got to keep getting better and finding ways to improve our players and our systems.”
And while they were smashed at the clearances by 22 and registered a season-low 18 against the Blues, McQualter said he could see good signs from the next generation.
“I think we’re seeing some signs from our very, very young midfield that they can do some stuff,” he said.
“Ultimately, we’re coming up against guys today who have probably played 150, 100 games together and they’ve probably played 600 games between that midfield. The numbers on ours might be a bit lower.
“We’ll see signs, but it will take a little bit of time, that’s just what happens in AFL footy. There were some good signs today from Gross and Hutchinson these guys who have less than five, 10 games.”
The Eagles could recall Kelly – who had 20 disposals, 10 inside-50s and a goal in the WAFL – to add experience in the midfield or turn to Graham and Duggan to help ease rectify the clearance catastrophe.
But McQualter indicated he was going to stick with the youth policy regardless of the pain on the scoreboard.
“There’s a fine balance between finding short term solutions versus long-term solutions,” he said.
“We could easily close the game down and play slow and wide and protect ourselves, put numbers behind the ball but I’m not sure that’s the right way to teach people how to play.
“I’m not sure it’s a sustainable model of becoming a winning team so we’ll continue to work our way through smaller solutions that will help us quickly but we’re not going to be become a short-term solution club.”
WEST COAST’S CHANGING OF THE GUARD – CENTRE BOUNCE ATTENDANCES
ROUND 1 v Gold Coast
- Jack Graham – 22
- Tim Kelly – 21
- Harley Reid – 21
- Liam Duggan – 13
- Elijah Hewett – 7
- Jack Hutchinson – 7
- Tyler Brockman – 2
Clearances: -17
ROUND 5 v Carlton
- Jack Hutchinson – 23
- Tom Gross – 20
- Clay Hall – 15
- Liam Baker – 13
- Brady Hough – 7
- Harley Reid – 3 (Predominantly Half Back)
- Tim Kelly – 0 (WAFL)
- Liam Duggan – 0 (Backline)
- Jack Graham – 0 (Half Forward)
Clearances: -22
https://thewest.com.au/sport/west-coast-eagles/the-midfield-numbers-that-show-the-changing-of-the-guard-at-west-coast-eagles-under-andrew-mcqualter-c-18356280
