West Coast has been teasing fans for years with that hapless, romantic story every supporter of a club going through years of heartache desperately clings to: the rebuild.
Loyal and passionate followers of the Eagles have angrily and, at times, comically endured getting thumped each week in the knowledge that the club had always bounced back after a couple of dismal years.
But despite cleaning out the stale board and getting a new coach, the Eagles have been bleak in 2025. And I feel things are about to get a bit bleaker.
It seems brutally unfair to judge Andrew McQualter after only four games but there have been no clear signs that whatever game plan he concocted over the summer wasn’t working with his current list.
So, the man known as Mini decided it was time to officially pull the lever on the revamp and drop star onballer Tim Kelly. No more tinkering around the edges.
McQualter hinted the week before he was going to make a statement at the selection table after axing reliable defender Harry Edwards from the team to face GWS.
With Jeremy McGovern missing with an abductor strain, Edwards was the logical tall to take on reigning Coleman Medallist Jesse Hogan.
Instead, the Eagles coach picked debutant Sandy Brook to play on Hogan. It was a bewildering move, given the preseason supplementary player looked like he had just come from his High School prom.
The GWS forward danced around the young Eagle with all the choreography brilliance of Radiohead’s Tom Yorke, gyrating boding in the video clip for the song Lotus Flower.
Despite the agonising pleas of fans on social media, begging McQualter to put Brook out of his misery, he kept him on Hogan. He finished with a career-high nine goals.
Andrew McQualter. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
After the match, McQualter defended his decision to play Brook.
“I thought – this is going to sound crazy – but I thought Sandy Brock defended quite well and showed some moments.”
So did fellow debutant Tom Gross. The pint-sized inside mid picked up 17 possessions and scored a towering goal from just inside 50.
More importantly, he got his own ball and, for a brief, shining moment, was involved in several centre clearances during the third term.
It wasn’t much, but something West Coast had been sadly lacking over the past few seasons.
There were positive signs if you looked in the right place.
Young power forward Archer Reid had also shown glimpses he was going to be a more than happy replacement for skipper Oscar Allen if he continues to be wooed by his suitors.
Crafty forward Tyler Dewar and fellow goal-kicker Jack Williams are getting better with each outing.
With prized draft pick Bo Allan expected to debut in the coming weeks, West Coast’s starting 18 is starting to have a different flavour and look.
McQualter dropped Kelly for the game against the Blues at Adelaide Oval this weekend because he wanted to seize on the miniscule momentum he created with Brook.
He knew it was time to make a bigger, more powerful statement. If the club was seriously hellbent on overhauling its list and playing the kids, this was not the time to be loyal to senior players.
Something former coach Adam Simpson struggled with.
McQualter wanted to send a stern message to the players that everyone was on notice.
Tim Kelly (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
I’m not convinced Kelly deserved to be axed if you look at his stats this year.
He’s number one for goal assists at West Coast and is in the top five for disposals, contested possessions, score involvements and tackles.
But West Coast is finally looking beyond the horizon.
Kelly has openly confessed about falling out of love with the game and with the 100-gamer out of contract at the end of the year, he may struggle to get back into a side, that is determined to blood young mids.
His future beyond this year at the Eagles is looking shaky.
Ask any West Coast supporter about Kelly, and they will proudly inform you the Eagles’ ongoing woes are because the club “sold the farm” to bring him west in 2019.
No matter how outstanding the 2023 Eagles Best & Fairest played throughout the past four seasons, he was always the punching bag after underperforming in another West Coast shellacking.
He has had to carry the burden of West Coast’s ongoing lack of success.
When Kelly signed a six-year contract estimated worth $5 million in 2019, it seemed like a sensible deal.
He had just come off a stunning year where he finished top-five in the Brownlow medal count surrounded by a stellar cast at the Cats, including Patrick Dangerfield, Joel Selwood and Gary Ablett Jr.
Kelly also earned an All-Australian selection.
The Eagles had won the flag in 2018, and many felt the premiership window was wide open, especially now that it had added a blue chip, goal-kicking mid to their ranks.
West Coast fans were salivating about the prospect of Kelly tearing down the middle of the newly minted grass at Optus Oval.
He happened often enough, but he didn’t deliver the flag that West Coast wanted.
For whatever reason, McQualter has dropped Kelly; he is going to stick with his youngsters.
Mini had no other choice. The rebuild is going to take longer than anyone expected. It was time to make a statement.
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