Webster eyes finals for WAFL EaglesMonday, April 1, 2019 - 11:50 PM - by Chris Pike

THE West Coast Eagles aren’t entering the WAFL just to make up the numbers and to have their players preparing for the AFL with coach Luke Webster making no secret that winning is also a major focus.

For the first time, the WAFL will be a 10-team competition in 2019 with the addition of the West Coast Eagles team with their partnership with East Perth coming to an end following the 2018 season.

That means that the Royals return to being a standalone club and the Eagles will field their own side for the first ever time. 

The flow on effects of that will be no need for a team to have a bye each week while it's a genuine home-away competition with each team playing one another twice, both home and away.

It will be a little different for West Coast, however, with the Eagles to play all their WAFL matches at the home venue of their opponents.

That all gets underway in Round 1 when West Coast takes on Perth at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

It remains a great unknown just how the Eagles team will shape up with the group made up of 17 WAFL-listed players who will be topped by the West Coast-listed players not selected for an AFL game any given week.

There is some good quality in their WAFL-listed players they have brought in including Brady Grey, Daniel Acres, Joel Kalajzic, Alex Coe, Matthew Ah Siu, Joel Ashman, Luke Salomone and Mitch Curnow. 

Then the likes of captain Fraser McInnes, Jake Waterman, Jarrod Brander, Daniel Venables, Matthew Allen, Brendon Ah Chee, Kurt Mutimer, Josh Rotham, Brayden Ainsworth, Jackson Nelson and Francis Watson are expected to be regular players that are AFL-listed.

New draftees Jarrod Cameron, Bailey Williams, Luke Foley, Xavier O'Neill, Keegan Brooksby, Harry Edwards, Brodie Riach and Patrick Bines will make up the team on a regular basis too.

Unless the Eagles suffer a horror injury run, there's every reason to expect them to be more than competitive.

Webster has moved on as coach of East Perth to now coach the Eagles WAFL team and while there are plenty of unknowns coming into the 2019 season, he is making no secret that they are aiming to be good enough to earn a finals berth. 

"Obviously with a new team and the unknown of a lot of the guys and we have 17 WAFL Eagles guys that we have recruited to the club. So we've had to get to know and understand them, and how they tick and how we are going gel together, and what makes them the footballers they are," Webster told 91.3 SportFM.

"Then we have to complement those with the AFL-listed guys we'll have each week. It certainly is the unknown but from what I've seen so far is a really good, competitive edge from the group. 

"They have gelled together really well and it's going to be wait and see with regards to how we go. But we go into the season to win as many games as we can to qualify for finals and have a real competitive edge about ourselves."

Webster obviously has part of his mission as Eagles coach to have the AFL-listed players ready for any call up while also developing all the players under his control, but by no means does he see that as meaning winning can't be a major focus as well.

"It's always in the back of the mind of any coach that you want to create a winning culture and win enough games to be able to play some finals footy," he said.

"We're certainly in an environment where we actually want to develop both lists and we have 17 WAFL Eagles guys that we want to bring up to a standard of WAFL and/or AFL footy. 

"Then we have the Eagles-listed players who we want to develop so they can push up for AFL selection. There is a focus on developing our players and then within that, hopefully that gives us the chance to win enough games to play some finals footy."

One major recruit for the WAFL Eagles is Brady Grey. The Peel Thunder premiership player and Fremantle AFL hard nut of 21 games is someone that Webster had a hard time against when coaching against Peel at East Perth, and couldn’t be happier to now be coaching him.

"I'm glad he's on our side now, we've had some good tussles with him at East Perth when he was playing at Peel," Webster said.

"He put in a couple of really good performances so it's good to have him on our team now and he's part of our leadership group, and will be our vice-captain.

"He's shown some great leadership but a lot of it is about his actions that he brings on game day with his toughness around the footy and ability when he does win it to use it and hurt sides. It's great to have him on our team."

Webster is also more than happy with the man the Eagles have appointed as captain for 2019, Fraser McInnes.

The versatile big man is now a veteran of 113 WAFL matches on top of his 14 games for West Coast in the AFL, and was a fairest and best winner for East Perth.

While McInnes will still be hoping to earn some more AFL opportunities in 2019, Webster feels content in the knowledge he was the best choice as captain.

"We sat down with Craig Vozzo, myself, Gavin Bell, Adam Simpson and Jordie Loxley, and had a long discussion around who we thought should be part of our leadership group, and talked through how we would like to have a captain and vice-captain," he said.

"There was a lot of discussion about who it would be and as much as we want Fraser McInnes to play good footy and step up to play in the AFL, we thought the qualities that he brings from a connecting the group, getting around the players, playing with strong work rate and competing hard every week fit the bill as a captain. 

"Over the last few years he's had a good connection with the players at East Perth when he's gone back there and a little reason why we went down the path with him was because he has a great connection point with a lot of these guys. He is a terrific guy to have in that role and I think it's well deserved for him."

Webster's playing career at AFL level might have been cut short at 33 games due to a horror run of knee injuries, but he got the most out of himself becoming a favourite son in 107 matches including a premiership at East Perth in the WAFL.

His coaching now continues to grow too having started in a role at Carlton where he enjoyed learning from Brett Ratten and Mick Malthouse before he returned home to join the West Coast Eagles.

He has been happy with the way he has developed as a coach both in his development role at West Coast and by coaching East Perth in the WAFL and now in charge of the Eagles.

"I'm certainly learning a lot. I had some really good experiences in my time at Carlton, learning under some really good coaches with Mick Malthouse being one and Brett Ratten the other," Webster said.

"Then obviously coming to West Coast and under Adam Simpson it's been terrific to work with him. He's a terrific fella with a lot of knowledge and he wants to get the best out of all us coaches while allowing us to have some real autonomy which has been terrific.

"I'm learning new things every week, which is great for my own development and I love being able to coach my own team to put some things into practice. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but that's coaching and all about learning and developing."