Are West Coast tanking?

[Jumping Jack Clennett 1,626]

Nathan Buckley implied as much this morning on SEN. He wondered why they didn’t try to stop one of the Freo players who was dominating( I can’t remember who it was). He suggested they were pretty keen not to let North get that No. 1 draft pick.

He was sort of hushed up after making the comment, and didn’t (?dare) mention it on “On the Couch”.

Perhaps there is some directive not to make such innuendo.

I wish it was there we we had the trouble.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Jumping Jack Clennett
Clarification

[don cordner 165]

100% from last year but now it’s back fired, no coming back from this tank like last time they did it, lol

[Mach5 4,482]

Buckley went down the same path when WC lost to Essendon by a point, questioning why Adam Simpson was dictating that they specifically did not put a spare man in the backline to hold a late lead.

I did wonder if Bucks holds some resentment towards the team who stopped him from winning a flag as coach.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Mach5

[Bystander 893]

Sure, that's right nafan..they chose to lose and to really make sure they decided to do it by 20 goals ...the whole team was in on it and the coach was happy to look bad. That is why they are pretending to have so many injured players.

I am so sick of these former players and coaches talking this dribble to have something controversial to say.

Cornes is the worst.

[BDA 20,405]

West Coast aren't tanking. They're genuinely putrid. They're actually worse than we were which is some feat. 

[Skuit 9,305]

Yes. Every bottom team has tanked over the past 20 years and we must immediately address the issue lest our equalisation measures are compromised once again. A lottery system should help West Coast get better. 

[DeeZone 7,860]

YES, YES and YES. More blatant than North and Hawks perhaps but North playing stronger now they can’t lose pick two and Hawks now putting in an appearance now they have pick three sown up.!!!!

[Ollie fan 2,213]

I doubt if they are tanking, and I don't think any team would at the moment. Surely the lesson has been learned: the draft picks you get can turn out to be duds, and the damage done to team culture is irreparable. Surely, we know that, and I suspect every team has learned from that lesson.

[beelzebub 22,268]

Does a bear.......

[YesitwasaWin4theAges 5,923]

They've been tanking the light out for the past 2 years if you don't believe that you have rocks in your head.

Why else would Adam Simpson still be at the helm?

[DubDee 21,036]

they have a percentage of 50%. worse than us under Neeld at our worst. 

zero tanking. if they tried harder they might lose by 80 instead of 100 pts??

Lazy commentary from Buckley 

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,588]

The easiest way for the AFL to quash these talks is for the AFL to introduce the draft lottery for the bottom 5 or 6.

At the same time, they should introduce a floating fixture for the double up games, so that it gets decided once more of the season has played out and reduce the chances of having an easy draw from deciding the makeup and positions within top 8.

[leave it to deever 16,008]

I don't know. They probably are. 

But what about our Swans game.

Just quietly, do we go easier if it means avoiding an interstate final?

[Gawndy the Great 7,643]

4 hours ago, DeeZone said:

YES, YES and YES. More blatant than North and Hawks perhaps but North playing stronger now they can’t lose pick two and Hawks now putting in an appearance now they have pick three sown up.!!!!

And this is why Norf shouldnt be afforded a priority pick. Hawthorn have been [censored] for 5 minutes and already are showing signs of progress in their rebuild. It is not just about the players. You need to breed the right environment with club admin and footy dept and Norf were rotten to the core. Get the investment and assistance here otherwise you'll just burn through plenty of good players. GCS is another example of a team that should be making a PF with the talent they have in the that club.  They have already been at the lower rungs for multiple years cleaning up the top end of the draft pool. 

[3183 Dee 2,625]

Tanking may get you better picks, but it does nothing for your culture - look how long it took us to get out of that toxic mindset.

[Jjrogan 1,244]

5 hours ago, BDA said:

West Coast aren't tanking. They're genuinely putrid. They're actually worse than we were which is some feat. 

Agreed.  Incredibly, they had the most AA players on their list at the start of the year, but a lot of these senior players simply gave up sometime during or as covid ended.  They never bothered putting in the hard yards getting their bodies and minds right for AFL from the start of last year.  And until recently, they didn't have top 10 draft picks. So both the talent and hunger isn't there.  Their reserves get flogged in the wafl.

Remember watching them in the 90s and wondering if we ever would see them win a wooden spoon or being awful, especially with the + 3 they played with every week at home for a decade.    We live in good times. 

[Little Goffy 12,727]

They must be really, really sure someone is offering a very good package to get that number 1 pick off them!

It was as recently as 2021 where they missed out on finals by one game, after six consecutive years of finals including a premiership. The sheer depth of the drop-off is quite impressive.

Still, that premiership... it was built on the most obvious tanking since the Kreuzer Cup.

If I recall correctly, 2007 to 2011 went; Top 4. Bottom 4. Bottom 4. Bottom 4. Top 4.

Executed to perfection. Starting with Judd out for young star key forward Josh Kennedy, and pick 3.

Tanking got them Nic Naitanui, Brad Shephard & Andrew Gaff at the point end, plus Luke Shuey and Jack Darling with their priority picks.

The good news is, this time around they do look genuinely rubbish, and they haven't had a successful draft since 2017 so not looking like any magical sudden turnaround this time.

[Mach5 4,482]

6 hours ago, BDA said:

West Coast aren't tanking. They're genuinely putrid. They're actually worse than we were which is some feat. 

Not mutually exclusive though.

[Sir Why You Little 34,697]

Yes. The whole Club has been Tanking since the COVID Hub of 2020

They all cracked the sads, and have wallowed ever since 

[chookrat 3,778]

7 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

I don't know. They probably are. 

But what about our Swans game.

Just quietly, do we go easier if it means avoiding an interstate final?

I don't think it's called tanking if you lose a game in order to improve the chance to win a premiership in the same season. FWIW we need to do our best to finish above Brisbane as we don't want to play them up there, while an away final in Adelaide doesn't seem as daunting if we get to play the rest of them at the G. If we finish 4th we should play Collingwood in the qualifying, assuming they beat one of Brisbane and Essendon (not a given) to finish minor premiers, but then would likely face one of Brisbane or Port interstate in a Prelim final.

[KingDingAling 3,614]

7 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

I don't know. They probably are. 

But what about our Swans game.

Just quietly, do we go easier if it means avoiding an interstate final?

Yes. 

[rjay 23,964]

11 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

Just quietly, do we go easier if it means avoiding an interstate final?

Not a chance...

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,499]

Logic says they are not tanking. There is no material advantage to a team to do so these days. When we were accused of it, there was potential motivation caused by the fixed formula the AFL then had which provided an extra early pick. Now that the extra pick vbia a known formula has been removed, the only nominal advantage is a theoretical better position in each round of the draft. However, the evidence over 40 years of drafting is that the benefit of such positioning is so minimal, that tanking to get that opportunity is not worth it.

Some examples of picks number 1 compared with players later in the draft include Scully (Martin), Tom Boyd (Bontompelli), Paddy McCartin (Petrracca) and the list goes on.

[Diamond_Jim 11,941]

The Eagles are probably the wealthiest most supported club in the AFL and if not they're in the top three.

Seasons like 2023 are simply unthinkable. It's not just losses. It's the performances and the margin.

Be interested to hear from those in the West what the local media is saying. The injuries are real but their level of performance suggests deep structural concerns that can take 5 plus years to overcome

[Mach5 4,482]

Of course there’s some tanking involved here. Imagine being this putrid, but then also letting Essendon’s ineptitude rob you of pick 1? There’s no other way to describe Simpson’s aggressive instructions to not have additional defenders to maintain their slim advantage with seconds left.