The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football team based in Perth, Western Australia. Their 2019 season was their 33rd season in the Australian Football League (AFL), their sixth season under coach Adam Simpson, and their fifth and final season with Shannon Hurn as captain. Having won the 2018 AFL Grand Final, expectations were that West Coast would finish in the top four on the ladder. They won only three of their first six games, losing by greater than 40 points to the Brisbane Lions, Port Adelaide and Geelong, placing the Eagles 12th on the ladder at the end of round six. They then won 12 of their next 14 games, the losses being to Sydney by 45 points and to Collingwood by 1 point. By the end of round 21, West Coast had been in the top four since round 14, and were aiming to finish in the top two. They then had a disappointing six-point loss to Richmond, and a shock 38-point loss to Hawthorn at home, to finish the season fifth on the ladder. This meant West Coast missed out on the double chance that top four teams get in the AFL finals, significantly lowering their chances of winning the Grand Final. In the 2019 AFL finals series, they faced Essendon in an elimination final, beating them by 55 points, before losing to Geelong in a semi-final by 20 points, ending West Coast's season.
Notable events include Daniel Venables suffering a career-ending concussion in round nine, Nic Naitanui returning from injury in round 15, having been out since round 17, 2018, and Willie Rioli being provisionally suspended before the semi-final after tampering with a drug test. Jack Darling, who kicked 59 goals, was the club's leading goal-scorer for the third time in his career. Darling, Hurn, Jeremy McGovern and Elliot Yeo were selected for the 2020 All-Australian team. Liam Ryan won Mark of the Year for a mark he took in round nine against . Luke Shuey was West Coast's best and fairest player, winning the John Worsfold Medal. West Coast fielded a reserves team in the West Australian Football League for the first time in 2019.
Background
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football team based in Perth, Western Australia, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). They finished the 2018 home-and-away season second on the ladder. Continuing on through the finals series, they won the Grand Final against by five points, thus becoming the reigning premiers.
Prior to the start of the 2019 season, most of a group of 15 AFL.com.au reporters predicted that West Coast would finish the season in the top four again. However, only Travis King predicted they would win the premiership, with most reporters predicting would do so instead. All eight members of a group of Western Australia-based people from Nine Entertainment predicted that West Coast would finish in the top four, and three of them predicted West Coast would win the premiership.
In October 2018, it was announced that the West Australian Football League (WAFL) had decided to allow the West Coast Eagles to enter a reserve team into that competition starting in 2019, after the idea was unanimously endorsed by a meeting of WAFL club presidents. The Eagles paid a one-off licence fee of $90,000, which was split evenly between the nine other WAFL clubs, as well an annual fee of $800,000, to be spent in various areas. This was an increase on the previous $467,000 annual fee for aligning with East Perth Football Club, which allowed Eagles players to play for East Perth; the five-year agreement with East Perth had been mutually terminated in 2018. West Coast said the new arrangement would benefit its players that missed out on selection in AFL games or who were coming back from injury and wanted to play in the less intense WAFL games first. As part of the agreement, West Coast played all their WAFL home games at their opponents' home ground.
West Coast's on-field leadership went unchanged going into the 2019 season. Shannon Hurn remained captain for his fifth year, Josh Kennedy and Luke Shuey remained as vice-captains, and Nic Naitanui, Jeremy McGovern and Andrew Gaff rounded out the leadership group. Adam Simpson was senior coach for a sixth season. The assistant coaches were Jaymie Graham (forwards), Nathan van Berlo (midfield), Daniel Pratt (backs), Adrian Hickmott (contested ball coordinator), and Matt Rosa (stoppages and structure). The head of development was Gavin Bell. The other development coaches were Chance Bateman (forwards), Luke Webster (midfield), and Mark Nicoski (backs). Webster was also the coach of West Coast's WAFL team.
In March, Sam Kerr, the captain of Australia's women's national soccer team, was announced to be West Coast's number-one ticket holder for 2019–20. West Coast's major sponsors for 2019 were fast food outlet Hungry Jack's and online mortgage broker Lendi. West Coast had 90,445 members in 2019, which was the club's record. This was the second highest number of memberships out of the eighteen AFL teams in 2019.
Playing list
2018 off-season changes
After the end of the 2018 AFL season, Eric Mackenzie retired due to consistent struggles with fractures in his feet. Mark LeCras also retired, saying it was the right time, after becoming a premiership player in his 14th season with the Eagles. Scott Lycett left the club under the AFL's free agency rules, taking an offer from in his home state of South Australia. West Coast received a pick at the end of the first round of the 2018 draft as compensation. Malcolm Karpany and Luke Partington were delisted after having played no games in the 2018 season. Ryan Burrows, Callan England, Tony Olango and Tarir Bayok, who were all on the rookie list and did not play any AFL games, were also delisted.
On 7 October 2018, the day before the start of the 2018 trade period, Andrew Gaff signed a new contract with West Coast, after much consideration to leaving under the AFL's free agency rules. Having been suspended for eight weeks near the end of the 2018 season for striking player Andrew Brayshaw in the jaw, Gaff was considering signing a contract with a club based in Victoria, his home state. Six clubs looked at potentially recruiting Gaff, including , who offered him a seven-year long deal worth about $8 million. In the end, he chose to stay with West Coast, in the hopes of winning a premiership, signing a contract there worth less than the North Melbourne one.
West Coast were one of the least active teams during the 2018 trade period, making one trade. Obtaining an experienced ruckman to replace Lycett while Nic Naitanui was recovering from injury was West Coast's top trade priority. They did that by giving St Kilda pick 39 and a 2019 fourth-round pick in exchange for Tom Hickey, pick 60 and a 2019 fourth-round pick. West Coast were also aiming for a trade with for Tim Kelly, who wanted to return to his home state of Western Australia. The Eagles offered picks 20, 22 and a 2019 second-round pick to Geelong, but the two teams could not reach an agreement. West Coast's list manager Brady Rawlings said they will try to get a Tim Kelly trade done the following year, when he is out of contract. AFL.com.au rated West Coast's trade period an 8/10, saying that "Andrew Gaff's recommitment on the eve of the Trade Period meant anything else was a bonus." It also said that although the Eagles failed in a trade for Tim Kelly, it was good that they did not trade away the large number of picks that Geelong wanted in return. Fox Sports gave the trade period a "C" grade, with Nick Dal Santo saying "it was a good get because they had to get a ruckman. Tom Hickey is not a premium ruck, we completely understand that...", and "...their biggest get this year was keeping Andrew Gaff."
The Eagles made three trades during the draft. The first trade had West Coast receive pick 29 from in exchange for a 2019 third-round pick. That was the first ever trade of draft picks during the draft, as that year was the first time it was allowed. The second trade had West Coast receive a 2019 second-round pick for sending Sydney pick 25. Their last trade involved giving West Coast picks 27 and 32 for West Coast's pick 23 and a 2019 fifth-round pick. In the draft, West Coast chose Xavier O'Neill (pick 28), Luke Foley (pick 31), Bailey Williams (pick 35) and Jarrod Cameron (pick 39). In the rookie draft, West Coast chose Harry Edwards (pick 18) and Josh Smith (pick 34), passing on pick 46. Patrick Bines and Brodie Riach, who both have a background in basketball, joined West Coast as category B rookies. Keegan Brooksby, who played for Gold Coast between 2015 and 2017, joined the club in the supplementary selection period, which allows clubs to select players who are previous AFL players that have not been in the AFL for over a year. AFL.com.au'''s Callum Twomey and Riley Beveridge complimented the Eagles on the trades they made during the draft. ESPN rated West Coast's draft a "B+".
+ Removals from playing list Player Reason Games Retired 147 Restricted free agent (to ) 75 Retired 219 Delisted 7 Delisted 6 Delisted 0 Delisted 0 Delisted 0 Delisted 0
+ Additions to playing list Player Acquired Former club Former league Category B rookie Category B rookie Traded from AFL Supplementary selection period South Adelaide SANFL 28, 2018 national draft Oakleigh Chargers TAC Cup 31, 2018 national draft Subiaco WAFL 35, 2018 national draft Dandenong Stingrays TAC Cup 39, 2018 national draft Swan Districts WAFL 18, 2019 rookie draft Swan Districts WAFL 34, 2019 rookie draft AFL
Statistics + Playing list and statisticsPlayerGamesGoalsBehindsKicksHandballsDisposalsMarksTacklesNotes/Milestone(s) 1 24 30 19 211 70 281 72 51 2 13 15 5 112 45 157 75 16 3 22 3 1 437 265 702 141 52 4 24 16 15 344 291 635 128 39 5 24 0 2 324 139 463 188 37 6 23 11 12 323 223 546 84 169 7 17 3 1 168 114 282 93 30 200th AFL game (round 2) 8 23 0 4 251 277 528 111 129 9 5 0 2 37 25 62 7 17 10 2 0 2 14 4 18 8 1 12 21 20 11 134 79 213 75 58 13 24 8 2 409 238 647 81 129 200th AFL game (Elimination final) 14 15 0 1 174 65 239 85 26 15 19 30 13 145 113 258 59 64 16 20 9 2 120 129 249 58 51 17 22 49 29 132 51 183 89 39 200th AFL game (round 2)600 AFL goals (round 19) 18 6 2 1 27 29 56 18 16 19 11 0 0 30 42 72 17 30 20 23 1 1 242 101 343 164 36 21 20 21 15 143 60 203 70 38 22 0 23 22 0 0 283 93 376 82 33 24 0 25 21 0 2 386 104 490 154 31 250th AFL game (round 2) 26 2 0 0 19 8 27 12 5 Rookie, AFL debut (round 18) 27 24 59 18 203 84 287 112 64 28 14 0 0 107 53 160 67 47 29 0 30 13 0 0 103 49 152 47 23 31 14 0 0 80 37 117 48 22 32 0 33 0 34 18 1 5 130 85 215 52 42 35 4 0 0 34 15 49 24 6 AFL debut (round 3) 36 0 Rookie 37 14 0 0 131 30 161 86 11 38 0 39 7 11 2 35 18 53 14 28 AFL debut (round 14) 40 0 Rookie 41 1 1 0 11 4 15 7 0 42 0 Rookie 43 0 44 14 18 10 121 65 186 47 42 45 2 1 1 13 10 23 9 0 West Coast debut (round 2) 46 0 Rookie 47 0 Rookie
Season summary In the 2019 AFL season, each team played 22 games and had a mid-season bye. West Coast played , Collingwood, Fremantle, and twice, and the other teams once each. The teams that West Coast played twice were regarded as tough to beat before the start of the season. West Coast had an increase in prime time scheduled games compared to the 2018 season, with three Friday night games at home and a Thursday night game at home. They also had only six six-day breaks, and three matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), their equal highest number of matches there since 2005. As part of their pre-season, West Coast played Geelong and Fremantle in the JLT Community Series. West Coast beat both teams.
Rounds 1–12