I think a lot of people are being overly conservative regarding the demise of West Coast. If they make finals, it will be on the back of playing at Subi, and will require Cox and Kerr to stay healthy, on the field, and at peak performance.Richter wrote:Hmmm interesting - I was thinking the opposite actually. Judd was awesome the first half of last year - racked up all his Brownlow points in the first 10 games from memory.vacuous space wrote:I agree. I expect West Coast to be in the top-4. They still play at Subiaco, they still have the best ruck in the business and they still have a lot of bodies they can run through the middle. They actually have some depth at KP now too.st.byron wrote:I think he's underestimating West Coast. Judd and Cousins had minimal influence last year and they were still oh so close to a home prelim.
When we played em over there both Judd and Cousins were out. When they came over here Cousins won them the game in the second half.
Then in the finals game they lost because of Cousins going down against Port and then missing him altogether the following week against the pies.
Yes, Rosa, Priddis etc. are decent players (Kerr a great player) but you can't NOT miss the quality of Judd and Cousins IMO.
I put them at 9-10.
As Richter points out, Judd was incredible in the first half of the year (and co-incidentally Kerr was in some of the best for of his career as well), but once injury struck and before Cousins returned, The Eagles proceeded to lose to both St. Kilda and Brisbane at Subi - and while giving credit to the winners, both missed finals, and the Eagles avenged that loss at TD in no small part because of a big 2nd half from Ben Cousins.
The Eagles still have a lot of talent, and are built to play at Subi, but for all the hype, they've been a team built around their midfield and just lost 2 of the comps best midfielders. They've got plenty of guys to keep them from sliding too far, and plenty of kids who WILL be good... but the next couple of years are IMO going to be a development curve back towards the top 4 rather than in it... I seriously expect them to miss finals, as opposition clubs are still going to come in amped to play them.
