The West Coast Eagles came from the clouds to win last year’s premiership.
After a barnstorming 10-1 start to the season, the Eagles forced the football world to sit up and take notice.
They unearthed Willie Rioli and Liam Ryan, while Jack Darling, Andrew Gaff, Elliot Yeo and Jack Redden had career-best seasons.
Headlines swirled all year about the prospect of losing Jeremy McGovern, Andrew Gaff, and Scott Lycett to free agency, but only Lycett left, finding a new home with the Power.
As Meatloaf says: two outta three ain’t bad.
Mark LeCras also retired, and although the Eagles failed to land Tim Kelly, their list for the 2019 campaign seems in a good place.
Josh Kennedy and Jamie Cripps have raced the clock all pre-season to be ready for Round 1, and Nic Naitanui is not expected back until mid-season, but otherwise the Adam Simpson has mostly a healthy squad to choose from.
West Coast have also added St Kilda’s Tom Hickey and Collingwood’s Josh Smith, with Hickey likely to debut in his new colours come Round 1.
For the Eagles, the big questions are can their “web” zone defence system stand up under the new rules which will likely force them to play more one-on-one, and can their midfield recreate its excellent form last year, with arguably its weakest ruck division of the century until Naitanui’s return?
If the answers are in the affirmative, 2018 may only have just been the beginning.
OUR BEST 22 - ROUND 1
NOTABLE OMISSIONS: Nic Naitanui (knee), Andrew Gaff (suspension)
MVP
David King said at the beginning of last season that no team depended on one player as much as West Coast depended on Nic Naitanui, but he wasn’t there for the Grand FInal.
Josh Kennedy is one of the best goalkickers in the game, however he missed half of the home and away season.
Elliot Yeo just won back to back Best and Fairests, but the dynamic midfielder had his colours lowered by Levi Greenwood in last year’s decider, and Andrew Gaff, in career best form, famously missed out entirely.
There is only one man the Eagles can’t win without and it is Jeremy McGovern.
Last year he won his third consecutive All Australian selection and broke his own record for most intercept marks in a season – the last of those intercept marks was the most important since Leo Barry, setting up Dom Sheed for his famous set shot.
Opposition teams are aware of him, and attack more cautiously, and indirectly, in the knowledge of his presence.
So even when he isn’t pulling in an intercepting mark, his simple existence impacts the game.
BREAKOUT
Oscar Allen came to within a whisker of playing in last year’s Grand Final before Jeremy McGovern made it to the starting line, and it would have been the youngster’s third AFL game.
He impressed in the two games he played in his debut season in the Giants as a defender in West Coast’s Round 14 win, and again as a forward when they triumphed over the Lions in Round 23, but he could be far more than just a replacement in 2019.
Compared to the average 20-year-old, he has excellent size and strength, strong hands, yet also reasonable athleticism.
This season he will look to adjust to the pace of the game a little more as he aims to bed down a permanent spot which Adam Simpson seems to be hinting is his for the taking
UNDER THE PUMP
Masten was a solid contributor all season, bouncing back from a difficult 2017 which saw him out of the side for most of the second half of the year.
However, Dom Sheed came into his own in the time Andrew Gaff spent out of the side, and won’t be displaced by Gaff’s Round 3 return, meaning someone else may have to give way.
Masten, 30 years old in May, also lost his title of 2 kilometre time-trial king, as new arrival Josh Smith outshone him.
Smith, along with a number of young midfielders, will have eyes for Masten’s wing, so the pressure will be on to produce as strongly as he ever has.
EARLY PREDICTIONS...
1. West Coast will finish the H&A season 10-2 at Optus Stadium
2. Andrew Gaff will finish in the top-five of the Brownlow Medal
3. Jack Petrucelle will play 20 games, taking over a forward pocket owned by Mark LeCras for a decade
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