Eagles captain Luke Shuey believes his team is in the best physical shape it’s been in for as many as five years as it aims for a quick bounce after an “embarrassing” 2022 campaign.
The Eagles last year slumped to 17th on the ladder, winning just two games as they struggled with player unavailability due to, initially, Covid and injury.
But West Coast has a near fully fit list just over one month before Round 1, with 42 of the 44 players participating in full training. Harry Barnett is training away from the group, while Rhett Bazzo is on personal leave following the tragic death of his mother.
It was put to Shuey, who this week was appointed West Coast captain for a fourth season, on Wednesday by reporters that the group appeared noticeably fitter on the track this summer.
“Certainly fitter than the last four or five years, no doubt,” he said.
Asked if the club before players went on leave last year had requested players to return to pre-season training in better shape, Shuey said: “Yeah, yeah … look when there’s smoke, there’s fire.
“A lot of people externally were calling us ‘unfit’ last year – and they probably weren’t completely off the mark with that suggestion.
“But internally we were always going to figure out once we reviewed the season what we needed to get better at – and you can‘t do anything unless you’re fit in this game anymore. So our first step over the off-season was making sure we came back in good shape.
“Our strength and conditioning staff did a hell of a job putting together a program that was different to years gone by. The playing group was certainly more driven, more numbers training together every week.
“It was a really enjoyable off-season … It was hard work, but I think we‘re starting to reap some rewards.”
Shuey said the young players the Eagles had drafted onto their list in recent years would bring strong internal competition for best 22 spots this season.
Many of those youngsters were exposed to senior footy last year, which Shuey said was a “a blessing in disguise” as it was a tough but invaluable initiation.
“I don’t think the confidence was dented … but the pride took a little bit of a hit individually, but for us as a footy club as well,” Shuey said.
“For different reasons we weren’t competitive last year. That was at times it was a rollercoaster of emotions – embarrassing, disappointing, angry, frustrated.
“I think overall we found a way to navigate ourselves reasonably well … There was no harsher introduction for a few of those boys … than last year. They’ll learn from that, they’ll play plenty of footy for the footy club over the years to come.
“I think we’ve let it (the 2022 season) go. You can’t let it go fully because obviously the emotional side of it still hurts and we were embarrassed by what we dished up. (But) it certainly gets talked about I think externally more than internally.”
Despite their lowly ladder finish last year, the Eagles still have 11 2018 premiership players on their list, as well as All-Australians Tim Kelly, Andrew Gaff and Nic Naitanui.
Shuey said “you‘ve always got to have high expectations” as a footy club, otherwise you “lose sight of where you want to get to”.
“We want to win games of footy again. We only did that twice last year and it was disappointing for different reasons,” he said.
“We’re in the same position as every other team at this time of the year … We‘ve done what we wanted to do over summer, but that gives us no entitlement to winning games this year. So all the hard work’s ahead of us.”
Shuey said Sydney and Collingwood’s respective ladder surges in recent seasons gave West Coast hope it could achieve something similar.
“It probably gives a lot of teams hope they can do what they did. I think what is probably more relatable to us is the turnarounds that Sydney and Collingwood have had over the last few years,” he said.
“The way the game is played these days with competition equality, if you get things right you can turn it around quickly, so we‘re hopeful we can do that as well.”
