THIS is entering Fitzroy in its last days zone of bad.
West Coast has become repetitively uncompetitive, a 108-point, home-ground loss to Carlton on Saturday night the latest embarrassing performance for Adam Simpson and his players.
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The once mighty Eagles' demise can be traced back to a woe-is-us attitude it made very public during the COVID-damaged 2020 season, took hold in the late stages of the 2021 season when it fell out of the finals, and became obvious to everyone in 2022 with 20 losses. Their opening to 2023 has been a drain on the competition.
Stretching back to late 2021, they have won just three of their past 33 matches. Fitzroy won three matches of its last 39 of AFL life in 1995 and 1996.
West Coast's injury list is very long. Jeremy McGovern, Nic Naitanui, Luke Shuey, Liam Ryan, Dom Sheed, Elliot Yeo and Jamie Cripps are big names who have missed a lot of footy. But plenty of experienced players have been available – Tim Kelly, Jack Darling, Tom Barrass, Liam Duggan, Oscar Allen, Jayden Hunt, Andrew Gaff, Shannon Hurn, Jake Waterman and Sam Petrevski-Seton all played against the Blues.
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Adam Simpson is contracted as coach of the Eagles until the end of 2024. He deserves that contractual security, as he twice took this team to Grand Finals in his first five seasons. But that doesn't mean he is not immune to internal analysis about his tenure beyond this year.
He seems out of answers, his list is old, tired, banged up. This club was once ruthless in all aspects of its operations. It isn't now. The very poor attitude it embraced during the early stages of the pandemic may have infiltrated key aspects of the overall business.
In yet another glaring integrity issue for the AFL fixture, six clubs have the extraordinarily good fortune of playing the Eagles twice this year. Carlton managed to increase its percentage from 92.4 to 113.3 during its waltz across Optus Stadium on Saturday night, and will already be looking forward to its round 19 match at its home against the Eagles.
Western Australia's other team, Fremantle, has its own very serious issues. Coming off a season in which it won 16 matches and reached a semi-final, its only two wins this year have been against West Coast and Gold Coast. Brisbane smashed it on Saturday.
Reality has descended, too, on North Melbourne after a vibrant start to 2023. The six teams that have the double-up games against it will be nearly as happy as those who play the Eagles twice.
The Roos' performances against Melbourne on Saturday and Brisbane in round five were as dreadful as the worst dished up under David Noble's season and a half tenure.
The big bags are back - and it's magnificent
IT'S KINDA like the 1990s, with sizeable bags of goals being kicked weekly in 2023. And it's beautiful.
Coleman Medallists Charlie Curnow and Tom Hawkins respectively kicked nine and eight goals in round seven, while Charlie Cameron booted seven in round six.
Another Coleman Medallist, Hawkins' teammate Jeremy Cameron, managed just three on Sunday against Essendon, but this year has tallied bags of seven, six and five.
It's game-on for the 2023 Coleman. Curnow and Jeremy Cameron lead with 30. Hawkins, after just three from the opening three rounds, has 22. Charlie Cameron has 22, well on track for a second All-Australian jacket and a fourth AFL season of 50 or more goals.
Look, it's not quite Tony Lockett, Jason Dunstall, Gary Ablett and Tony Modra, who between them reached the ton of goals in a season on 16 occasions.
But footy will never again be played as it was in those heady, full-focus on full-forwards days. And what we've got in 2023 is the next best. And it's very, very good.