West Coast Eagles' list for 2019 after AFL trade and draft periods

Mick Stirling

West Coast Eagles' list for 2019 after AFL trade and draft periods image

The dust has finally settled on AFL post-season activity and all 18 clubs have completed their lists for 2019.

Who’s come in via trades, free agency and the national and rookie drafts? Who’s gone out the other way?

And, most importantly, how does the list look after all the changes?

MORE: AFL draft: every pick, every player, every club

This week, Sporting News is going through each club’s changes to analyse whether steps have been taken forwards, backwards or if they’re just treading water.

West Coast Eagles

In

Trade:

Tom Hickey (St Kilda)

Free agency:

NA

Draft:

Xavier O’Neill (28 – Oakleigh Chargers), Luke Foley (31 – Subiaco), Bailey Williams (35 – Dandenong Stingrays), Jarrod Cameron (39 – Swan Districts)


 

Rookie:

Harry Edwards (Swan Districts), Josh Smith (Collingwood), 

Out

Traded:

Scott Lycett (RFA to Port Adelaide)

#scott lycett

Delisted:

Tarir Bayok, Ryan Burrows, Callan England, Malcolm Karpany, Tony Olango, Luke Partington

Retired:

Mark LeCras, Eric Mackenzie

Mark LeCras

West Coast’s 2019 list

The premiers lost a good ruckman and picked up a mediocre one, said goodbye to a valuable small forward and a best-and-fairest winning defender while bringing in some mid-range draftees, so it’s difficult to say the list is anything but weaker than in 2018.

But it has to be remembered Nic Naitanui and Andrew Gaff are still to be added to the team that won the flag, although Nic Nat will miss a lot of the season.

Verdict

Many wrote the Eagles off before 2018 and Champion Data has ranked their 2019 list the 11th best in the league, which only goes to show that whatever we say here means nothing. The list looks weaker, but they could go back-to-back!

Mick Stirling