The West Coast Eagles are arguably the most successful club in the AFL era.
Since their first season in 1987 the Eagles have won four premierships, hit 100,000 three consecutive times and have played finals 25 times during their 35 years in the competition.
But over the past 18 months Eagles fans have had to endure their side's worst run of performances in the Eagles' 36-year history.
West Coast's style of football, level of fitness and list management have often been blamed for the sides poor performances, but the club has also had to contend with an absolutely wretched run with injury.
In 2022 the Eagles were even forced to postpone of one of their WAFL matches because of a lack of players being available due to injuries and COVID.
During the pre-season the Eagles' injury crisis of last year seemed to be well in their rear-vision mirror as it was reported that there was a noticeable lift in fitness among Eagles players, but over the past few weeks the Eagles have once again been hit with an excessive number of injuries.
General manager of football Gavin Bell says that the Eagles are investigating their injury situation as they look for a solution.
“We’re certainly not burying our heads in the sand and thinking it’s just bad luck,” Bell told SEN WA.
“We’ve had a cycle for a while now that we are trying to work our way through. Each injury is audited, each player is, especially if they have had a repeat injury, is holistically audited on everything that they do from sleep, stress, diet, training loads, gym program.
“While our availability feels like or looks like last year, it’s a very different situation with what has occurred. I guess the ripple effect of some of those games where we have lost players and the increased load has put pressure on our squad.”
The Eagles have lost their past three matches by 40-plus margins, but the amount of experience (1384 games) on their injury list cannot be ignored. But there may be good news for Eagles fans as Bell believes that veteran Shannon Hurn and captain Luke Shuey are a possibility to return this weekend.
Games experience named on this week's @AFL website injury list
— Swamp (@sirswampthing) April 18, 2023
1384 - WCE
1153 - SYD
934 - MELB
848 - COLL
846 - CARL
813 - RICH
772 - STK
640 - FREM
625 - ESS
611 - GEEL
579 - WBD
500 - PORT
391 - GWS
344 - HAW
206 - GCS
188 - NTH
1 - BRIS
0 - ADEL
“Confident if he (Shuey) gets through tomorrow. He’s ticked off all the boxes that he needs to tick off. Now it's just a matter of the final preparation for the week," he continued.
“And Shannon as we sort of reported when he had his week off there was a couple of flags around ‘Bunga’ being a veteran athlete and such a combative player. The sensible decision was to give him the week off.
“We’re hoping some of the flags have come down a little bit and that he’s ready and available back over in Adelaide this weekend.
“When it comes to the ruck it’s the same sort of thing whether Jake (Waterman) continues to ruck, whether Bailey (Williams) is available and plays, whether (Josh Rotham) goes in there and rucks. We’ve got some options; we’re hoping Callum Jamieson is around if we need to.”
In bad news for Eagles fans, injury plagued midfielder Elliot Yeo is set to miss up to four weeks after he injured his groin in the Eagles' 47-point loss to the Cats as he joins the list of 15 players on the injury list.
And while reports were circulating that the Eagles WAFL side may have to postpone their match against East Fremantle this weekend due to a lack of players, Bell strongly denied these claims.
“There has been no talk of postponing the game, that’s news to me Duff. We haven’t gone down that path at all," Bell said.
“We have had no conversations about postponing the game. When we did last year that was based on when we couldn’t physically field a team so I’m not sure where that’s come from.”
The undermanned Eagles take on an in-form Power at the Adelaide Oval this Saturday.