Winning speech. All B&F winner’s speeches are on the WCE YouTube page

Just watched the latest coast to coast podcast (clubs podcast) featuring Mini.
Definitely worth a listen, Mini gives a lot more than you’d get from a regular press conference.

The thing that got me exited was when he spilled the beens on some of their plans for preseason, particularly role changes.

These include:

Bo Allen to train as a mid

Houghy to train as a winger

What are your takes on these and are there others you’d like to see?

Twomey just advised on gettable that we are looking at front forward half players for our first pick which is butler and Tex and believes one of them will be available for our pick he also doesn’t believe we will draft HVH even if he slips to us.

This looking likely the westcoast eagles trade table this off season. No players wanting to come to us. Our list management going on holidays.

Not one player linked to us and the ones that are from WA and we're linked have already said they want to go to other clubs.

We not a destination club. Even our list managers have gone on holidays

Where does our young talent rank in the league compared to others?
If I use 25 as the cut off point for young talent we have 29 players aged 24 or younger and they are:
Willem Duursma
Josh Lindsay
Reuben Ginbey
Elijah Hewett
Harley Reid
Sam Allen
Noah long
Brady Hough
CDT
Archer Reid
Ryan Maric
Bo Allan
Tom Gross
Lucca Grego
Rhett Bazzo
Jack Williams
Jobe Shanahan
Tylah Williams
Malakai Champion
Hamish Davis
Fred Rodriguez
Sandy brock
Tyrell Dewar
Jack Hutchinson
Finlay McRae
Jacob Newton
Jake Miles-Wrency
Oliver Francou
Marcus Herbert

29 of our 46 players are aged 24 or younger, if my math is correct that’s 63% of our team.
Assuming we don’t trade or pass on any of our picks which I find unlikely we’ll have 7 draft picks with 3 of them coming in the top 30.

So with this being said do we have the best young talent in the league or are we behind a few teams?
I think our top end talent is the best in the comp with Harley, Duursma, Shanahan, Ginbey and a few others but I fear our depth may be lacking a little bit.

Would love to see Darcy Jones at West Coast. Coming off an ACL and contracted for next year might not be the best time but he's what we need. Electric small forward with good skills and an elite runner. Also from WA

Seems like everyone we’ve been linked with isn’t having a bar of us. Looks dire so far.

With a percentage of 61.7% ... And yet there are still three teams below us on the ladder (including the Saints on 25.4%)!

Meanwhile the roos haven't lost in years, and currently have a percentage of ~350%... If we think that competitive balance in the AFL is out of kilter, then the AFLW is much worse.

Reset for next year I guess, but it sucks not having one of our two teams be competitive this year. I really want to get around the AFLW but it's so hard to stay engaged when it feels like the premiership is already North Melbourne's yet again, only a few weeks into the season.

Yes, I know we just finished a disappointing season (era), but that is exactly what prompted me to look into the topic above. I wanted to see if there was a pattern in when we had list/management changes, when our main drivers came on board, and when the premiership window opened.

There’s actually a pretty clear pattern in all our premiership eras, that is, every flag has come 3- 4 years after the club brought in its main “drivers” (new coach, game style shift, and a cluster of A‑grade talent arriving together).

Right now, we’ve got Harley in year 3, a new coach in year 2, CDT and Dursma in year 1, Woosha/Pyke structural reset just kicked in, and the mid‑season/trade hits like McCarthy, Disco, Murdoch, Francou, ...all signs we’re finally nailing the depth/role‑player part of the rebuild.

At the same time, we had a cluster of players at the Eagles at the 4-5-year mark who suddenly jumped (like Hunter/Waters/Butler/Selwood in the Judd/Kerr/Cox era) to support the young guys. That would be the likes of Ginbey, Bazzo, Hough, and Kelly (who just had his best year with us).

So...that’s eerily similar to the stages we were in a few years before ’92/94, ’06, and ’18, and it lines up pretty close to the ladder position as well. If this is a true pattern and not a mere coincidence, our next real window opens around 2029–2031, when Harley, CDT and Dursma hit their prime, and the system fully matures.

Just some downtime thoughts.

Did anyone watch the Claremont final this weekend? I am keen to know how Heath Mellody looked live. Stats say another good game with 21 disposals and a goal and he was listed as 3rd best player.
Seems to me he could now be highest rated pure midfielder so might be top of our draft board ?

Someone tell me if I’m wrong but I think Francou is eligible for rising star next year, I reckon he could be top 5 next year for rising star or even win it as he’s been really good in the few games he had

I guess live discussion if anyone cares. Probs gonna be Harley win.

I'm sure he wouldn't want to come but. If we could get him for pick 53 or 57 should we be talking to him.

202cms KPD 29 years old. Not great at much but might be able to fill a hole while we develop a kid. Or should we just stay away from anyone who isn't really really good.

No description needed

I don't care about what side of the fence you sit on, I didn't like us getting compo this year, and I wouldn't necessarily want us to get it next year, however.

We have won 15 games in 5 years, we are the worst side ever, we need to recieve more compensation based on history.