Great Expectations

HB Meyers·
AFL Drafts and TradesAFL Season 2024

The West Coast Eagles are not known for their patience.

The club joined the league in 1987 and were immediately competitive. They played finals in 88 and 90, and were the best team.in the league for the majority of the 1991 season before capturing their first flag in 1992.

This club does not tolerate failure well. And they have an expectation that they’ll be back on top sooner, rather than later.

As the smoke cleared and we walked away from the first night of the 2023 AFL Draft , the reputed best player in the draft went to the team with the first pick.

As it should be.

Still, it hadn’t halted weeks of speculation that the West Coast Eagles would trade away the first pick and the rights to Harley Read. It made good copy, and most of us bought it. It makes you wonder how many of the journos pushing the “potential trade” wagon knew it wasn’t going to happen, and how many knew that speculation sells newspapers or generates clicks.

My guess is a fair few of them.

Still, there were some, like Sam McClure, who made bold statements that “they’re not gonna pick him… he doesn’t want to go there”.

Nice one, Sam.

Anyway, when you obtain a talent like Harley Reid, there can be a feeling that the dark tunnel you’ve been in for a while is coming to an end. However, in West Coast’s case, the light they see might just be a train.

No, this isn’t yet another West Coast bash – lord knows, they’ve had enough whacks around the head over the last 12 months to last a while. This is more a case of preaching patience. That’s the thing about a successful club – they think they’ve been patient, already.

 

Oh, what the hell? Article continued behind the Mongrel paywall? Yep, I believe my work is worth twenty-five cents per day. If you don’t, that’s fine. Standalone articles, off-season news, into season previews and pre-season game reviews, before we hit the 2024 season are all part of Mongrel Membership. You’re welcome to join/rejoin

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    HB Meyers

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    5 Responses

    1. Got to agree HB … Eagles just have to be patient with the lad. Sam McLure isn’t worth listening to, not even worth reading what he comes out with.

      Reply

    2. Bob Skilton, Kevin Murray, Kelvin Templeton – the best player in a crap team.

      Their next pick is Archer Reid, whom our mob wanted, but we mustn’t be greedy. Reid will take an eternity to come good but he could be the next Josh Kennedy. So it’s worth having a bit of patience. I don’t know how old Tim Kelly is but is it worth trading him to Freo for some picks?

      Reply

    3. 25c/day? You quoted 20c/day in your Grundy article of October 7th. Is this hyper-inflation or do you genuinely believe the value of your writing has increased by 25% over the last month or so? I could accept such an increase if you’d taken to using the letters Z, X, and Q more often (placed more of your words on triple word scores).

      I refuse to not pay 5c more than I’m already not paying. As before, I’ll just have to guess how the remainder of your article reads. No doubt you’ll beging with the need to ease Read into his role, to balance the club’s need against the needs of Read. You’ll write about tempering fan expectations in his first season, balancing your words of caution with the juicy prospect of Read becoming a future leader of the club. You’ll use words like nucleus, build, youth and talent. I expect you’ll ask fans to follow as you examine the lessons from the Jason Horn-Francis debacle, thus drawing North and Port fans into your inner sanctum. You’ll wax lyrical about why he was played too early/too late/just right/Goldilocks/Three Bears and how this has shaped his relationship players, administrators and fans of two clubs. You’ll cast the AFL in the frame, glancing just long enough to agitate fans whilst still retaining plausible deniability when the AFL send its goons around.

      Aware that your readership may be losing the thread you’ll attempt to jolt them from complacency with stark warnings about other clubs sniffing around Read, implying that you hold some nuggets of insider knowledge gleaned from loose lipped slips, winks and nods from anonymous officials at clubs likely to poach, boil, fry or scramble Read, losing your audience wondering whether you’re talking about Read, West Coast’s fall from a great height or Humpty Dumpty. Like the Eagles, all the King’s men have scant hope of putting Humpty back together again. Eager to wring more from the tortured nursery rhyme analogy, equating Humpty to West Coast and the wall to the 2018 GF, you’ll stretch too far, suggesting Don Pyke’s return is analogous with the King’s horses. Some of your brighter readers may consider horses of little help in re-assembling the former Mr Dumpty from a sticky mess of albumen, yolk, membrane and shell fragments, given their use of hooves in lieu of hands and their lack of close-up stereoscopic vision or depth perception.

      Fearing you’ve flogged the King’s horses to death and veered too far off-topic, you’ll pivot, a clumsy segway into a poorly researched comparison of Read with one or two former Eagles greats. West Coast fans will be left in equal parts confused, angry, stunned and hopeful, clinically depressed yet overwhelmisngly optimistic, suspicious yet desperate to believe in you, gormless and yet intrigued without knowing quite why.

      Your arcitle will weave its subtle arguments, trapping fans within its myriad knots, leaving them with a sense that only the Mongrel Punt can provide the answers they seek, if only they knew the questions. They’ll find themselves strangely compelled to sign away their cash, unable to articulate why but convinced somehow that your crystal ball will be their salvation.

      Am I close?

      Reply

      1. On the inflation, I bumped it to 25c per day as, since the Grundy article, I have been instructed by our overlords to start collecting GST for them, or face their fiscal wrath. Better to overstate how much it is per day than understate.

        One thing I will comment on regarding your amusing fairy tale reply, Ms Goose, is that I have never, ever attempted to convey that I have any insider knowledge on any footy matter. Those who have reached out with information over the last five years have been thanked, however, I have chosen not to use their info to feed into articles. There have been some journos over the years who have compromised on what they write and their opinion of a player or team due to relationships fostered with players, coaches, or administrators. I have always preferred to remain at arms length, even if it means I miss out on the gossip. I find it a nice play to be situated.

        I also found that families of the players like that we don’t pry, even if they reach out to us, first.

        Some like that. Some don’t. Hopefully, enough continue to like it to make this venture worth my while. 🙂

        Now, I’ll just get back to rounding up those King’s horses. Difficult to do when they’re spread across two states.

        Reply

    4. I accept that all typos and mis-speelings are my responsibility. There is no excuse for failing to proof read my reply. The lack of paragraphs is not my responsibility but due to an incompatibility with my preferred browser

      Reply

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