West Coast‘s debilitating injury list explained as club bosses pledge ’holistic audit’

The injury list could be as high as 16 or 17 once scan results come in for sore midfielder Elliot Yeo (groin) and ruckman Bailey Williams (hamstring), ahead of a clash with Port Adelaide in Adelaide this weekend.

Bell said he was hopeful that veterans Shannon Hurn (rested) and Luke Shuey (hamstring) would be fit to resume.

He was less optimistic about Yeo.

“He has gone and had some scans. Just to have a look. The fact that he wasn’t able to finish the game makes it probably more unlikely than likely,” Bell told SEN about Yeo’s hopes of facing the Power.

Bell said the club was working hard to trace the source of every injury.

“We are certainly not burying our head in the sand and thinking it is just bad luck,” he said. “We have had a cycle for a while now that we are trying to work our way through. Each injury is audited, each player - especially if they have had a repeat injury - is holistically audited.

“Everything they do from sleep, stress, diet, training loads, gym program. We are certainly having a deep look at everything that we do.”

Bell stressed the current situation was still very different to the crisis that engulfed the club in 2022 because, “... the team that we can put out there are fit and healthy and able to cover the ground.”

He said the Eagles had a strong pre-season and were in a sound position until the Western Derby, when they lost seven players.

“If we had gotten through that game cleanly we would have had four or five in rehab was what we were thinking,” he said.

“Since then it has been one collision based injury after another which then unfortunately puts strain on the group so there are some guys with soreness and there are guys with soft tissue issues.

“There were a number of guys that came in yesterday that were a bit sore. We are just working our way through all of that.”

Williams has faced an extra workload because of other injuries. With teenage ruckman Harry Barnett not considered ready, Williams has literally been the only Eagles ruckman fit to play AFL football for a month.

Asked what would happen if Williams was unavailable this week Bell said: “We have got some options. We are hoping Callum Jamieson is around if we need to (play him).”

Bell was confident Shuey would play after three weeks out with a hamstring issue provided he got through training. And he shed light on the club’s decision to rest 35-year-old Shannon Hurn from round five.

“There were a couple of flags around Bunga being a veteran athlete and a combative player. The sensible decision was to give him the week off. We are hoping that some of the flags have come down a bit and he will be ready and available for us,” he said.

Asked what he meant by flags he continued: “It is everything from his age - we have flags for younger players as well. There are certain loads that their bodies can tolerate. We have a lot of young kids and a lot of veteran athletes.

“The Fremantle game for instance where we lost a lot of guys and we had minimal rotations. The more game time guys play the more elevated their risk is. The biggest flag is previous injury. If you have injured your hamstring before that puts you at greater risk of injuring your hamstring.”

Unavoidable

Campbell Chesser (knee): Had an opponent fall across his knee in the round-three western derby, resulting in a knee ligament strain. Will be missing for some time but it is hoped he plays football in the back half of the season. The problem is how much football he has missed in the past three seasons.

Jamie Cripps (ankle): Had his ankle broken when Fremantle defender Alex Pearce fell on him in a tackle in the western derby. Will struggle to play again this year, is about to turn 31 and that will put a question mark on where he sits moving forward.

Harry Edwards (ankle/wrist): Both were training accidents but both are impact injuries which are nigh on impossible to prevent/foresee. Probably would have played against Geelong at the weekend had he been fit, providing defensive support and a potential ruck back up to Bailey Williams.

Elijah Hewett (ankle): Rolled ankle in the opening seconds of Saturday’s WAFL clash against West Perth – his removal from the game left the Eagles with just five AFL listed players out there. Hard to know if Hewett straps his ankles (some players don’t like to) but this gets classified as an impact injury.

Callum Jamieson (ankle): May be available to play Port Adelaide this weekend and may be required if Bailey Williams doesn’t come up. Injured at training and then re-injured during a game. Almost certainly unavoidable.

Liam Ryan (hamstring tendon): Usually a tissue issue could be classified as avoidable. But Ryan did his tumbling head first off the top of a pack, attempting a screamer in the western derby. Will not be back for some time but it is effectively an impact injury.

Dom Sheed (throat): Impact injury. Accidentally hit in the throat during an innocuous incident in a training warm-up drill. Has missed the past two matches and is likely to miss at least one more. The club is waiting for swelling around the larynx to go down and has not confirmed early reports of a fractured larynx.

Jack Williams (spleen): Received a bump at training in the run into round one, felt unwell and was taken to hospital where it was revealed he had suffered a lacerated spleen. Qualifies as an impact injury. The young forward ruck is not expected to resume playing for another 4-5 weeks.

Isiah Winder (knee): A knee injury is usually either from impact or an awkward movement, but it is possible that the young forward is yet another victim of a training mishap. Winder, 20, finished the round-one WAFL clash against South Fremantle and had 22 disposals, kicking a goal but was a late withdrawal from the team to play West Perth in round two.

Bailey Williams (hamstring soreness): Has had scans and is yet to be confirmed as injured. A hamstring could be argued as a management issue but it is difficult to see how the Eagles could have managed Williams differently. For much of the past month he has literally been the club’s one available ruckman with Nic Naitanui and Callum Jamieson both injured, youngster Harry Barnett still building minutes and fitness in the WAFL after an interrupted summer, and Jake Waterman forced into the back up ruck role.

Every chance that the extra loads would have contributed to injury if he has suffered one. There were just no options for the Eagles to manage him differently.

Debatable

Nic Naitanui (achilles inflammation): The issue is not so much whether Naitanui is injured and whether it was preventable. It is more whether they should have re-signed him for two years in 2022, given his injury history. He will turn 33 next month and perhaps a one-year deal would have given the Eagles more list management flexibility, given he played just eight games last year and will not play again until the mid-season bye at least. Would need a solid block of matches once he resumes to be considered viable for next season.

Luke Shuey (hamstring): Same age as Naitanui so turns 33 later this year. Was reappointed captain after playing 17 games last season after two years when he was repeatedly interrupted by soft tissue issues. It would have been a big call to delist the captain but he is just one soft tissue tear away from being in serious trouble now.

Coby Burgiel (hamstring): Had injured a hamstring in the pre-season and is now said to have re-injured it at training on Monday. Still only 18 and the club is, at the very least, going to have to look at how it manages him from now on.

Jeremy McGovern (hamstring): The question here is ongoing durability. McGovern has just turned 31. He had turned up to training fitter than ever for the 2022 season but broke down and missed 12 games. He looked fitter again ahead of this season but is likely to miss at least 12 again this year. Has had significant rib, back and hamstring concerns now. Was deep in contract talks with the club at the time he went down.

Elliot Yeo (groin): This was probably the result of a match spiralling beyond their control on the weekend. Yeo played managed minutes as a defender for three quarters against Melbourne in round four and the plan was to leave him in defence against Geelong. But the Cats assumed total control of stoppages after a promising Eagles start. Geelong had kicked 12 unanswered goals and West Coast were 77 points down. Yeo started going into centre square stoppages. It helped steady the Eagles and they narrowed the lead to 47 points by the final siren, but Yeo finished the game off the ground, sore. Especially concerning given that he has a history of osteitis pubis. Is only 29 and will be a major concern.

Shannon Hurn (soreness): He is 35 and looked set to retire at the end of 2022 but had a strong season, finished second in the best and fairest and was awarded another contract. Has been steady at the start of this season but the club chose to rest him after four weeks and while they declared he wasn’t injured, they also said he could not have played. Will be assessed before the game against Port Adelaide in the hope he is ready to resume but is clearly going to have to be managed.