Truly the end of an era

Right now I'm watching the Sydney vs. West Coast 'blockbuster' on channel ten. It's midway through the third term and a flawed Sydney is man-handling the Eagles to the tune of 50 points. So I ask myself? How on Earth did this happen?

OK, so everyone knew that the absence of Ben Cousins and Chris Judd would hurt the Eagles this year. The question was how much. The consensus was that, yes the void would be difficult to fill, but the Eagles would still be premiership contenders on the basis that they did win 15 games last year with Ben Cousins out of action for just that many games, and Chris Judd hampered significantly by injury. Everyone figured that the Eagles still had a formidable midfield headlined by Daniel Kerr (perhaps the premier midfielder in the league), Dean Cox (undoubtedly the premier ruckman in the league), Andrew Embley, Matthew Priddis, Tyson Stenglein, Michael Braun and young guns Beau Waters, Adam Selwood and Matt Rosa, arguably the best defence in the competition with the likes of Darren Glass, Adam Hunter, Shannon Hurn, Brett Jones and add in some very capable role players (Mark LeCras, Mark Seaby, David Wirrapanda, Brent Staker) and the ideal arrangement for bounce-back years for Chad Fletcher and Mark Nicoski and you just about figure this team is a lock for at least top six.

So on the verge of a 1-3 record, how has everything gone wrong? Put it down to two things - depth and identity. The easier thing to analyse from a purely football perspective is of course depth. The main problem, and the most publicised, is the fact that Daniel Kerr is now warranting the number one opposition tagger. Over the past few years you'd say that generally Chris Judd would get the #1 tagger, Cousins the #2 and Kerr probably #3. That's completely wrong though, because no single team in the AFL has ever employed three taggers with the pure purpose to shutdown opposition players. Generally a team will have one, maybe two designated taggers, and other players will be manned up on by run-with players.

So effectively Daniel Kerr has gone from playing on players just as focused on getting the ball as they are on stopping him, to players that have the simple assignment to almost disregard their own game and make his life misery. Obviously it's a massive step to take for Kerr, to continue to play at a high standard despite being so closely watched. Lone superstars in the midfield, the Nathan Buckley's and Brent Harvey's of the world have been able to take the next step - I believe Kerr has what it takes to do the same, it's only a matter of time.

The bigger problem lies less with Kerr and more with the overall composition of the West Coast midfield. The brilliance of the West Coast Eagles in the past few years was their amazing depth in the middle. You had to deal with Judd, Cousins and Kerr - then you also had to worry about very good players like Andrew Embley, Matthew Priddis, Tyson Stenglein, Michael Braun and Chad Fletcher. With the absence of the aforementioned superstars, Priddis and Braun are now the #2 and #3 in the midfield. Priddis is still an AFL youngster (26 games), and Braun (30) has his best well behind him. Andrew Embley is only useful when loose and running - now he's warranting a much tighter tag, and his game will suffer. Tyson Stenglein thrived in the Eagles arrangement being the number 1 tagger and racking up an easy 16-18 possies per game (22 last year), now he has to be more effective working as an attacking player. Stenglein is a fantastic player, but his suspect disposal by foot will come under more scrutiny now. Chad Fletcher has virtually thrown away his career, and is at a crossroads right now having just been dropped from the team.

The lower positions in the midfield depth chart, one occupied by the players listed above, are now being handled by the flanker-turned-midfielder Beau Waters (a good move) and a handful of unpolished youngsters (Chris Masten, Matt Rosa, Adam Selwood). The difference from Judd, Cousins, Kerr to Kerr, Braun, Priddis and from Stenglein, Embley, Fletcher to Waters, Masten, Rosa has been massive.

One other thing I have to note before moving on to the next point is the lack of firepower in the midfield. The Eagles have never had a good forward line, but they've been able to kick winning scores through their midfielders (midfielders who can kick goals and provide sustained entry to the forward 50). Cousins and Judd could be counted on for 45 goals a year, and countless forward 50 entries. In the midfield now you have Kerr, Priddis, Braun, Stenglein and Fletcher, none of whom are goalkickers. Andrew Embley is the only midfielder they have that can be counted as a scoring threat week in week out.

OK, in spite of the lost depth and the lack of killer goal instinct in the middle, the Eagles are still a very solid team. So what's really at work here? A loss of identity. I'm going to make a bold statement here and say that no single player over the past 15 years has meant more to a playing group than Ben Cousins. In his time at the Eagles Ben Cousins was a god (a Ben Cousins piece is on the way, for now I'll stick to West Coast 08), the spiritual leader of the team. He was the most loved player by the fans and within the team. So, not only do you lose your spiritual leader and superstar, but weeks later you lose your captain, best player and arguably the finest player in the league. I think people tend to underrate individual players. The argument is that one player can't have THAT significant impact on a game that has 21 other players. What is often left out is that one player can indirectly impact the playing ability of all 21 players. That's something than Ben Cousins, and to a lesser extent, Chris Judd did week in week out. They made their teammates better with their player and their leadership. That's not something you can replace.

Daniel Kerr is not a leader, Dean Cox is too nice a guy, and although Darren Glass and Tyson Stenglein have the heart and ferocity of a lion, they don't consistently inspire through their play. Not only have the Eagles lost their two best players, they've lost their two best leaders. The Eagles can bounce back this year, but they won't be serious contenders for the premiership. In order to bounce back the midfield have to embrace their new roles filled with greater expectation, and Daniel Kerr needs to establish himself as a leader. You sense that the Eagles midfielders are playing as though Judd and Cousins are still there carrying the load, that's obviously not the case and veterans Braun, Kerr and Stenglein need to lead by example.

Ultimately I could talk as much as I liked about the impact of a loss of depth, the lack of leadership, and heightened roles for midfielders, but at the end of the day the fact is that for three years the oft-spoken poetic run-on sentence 'Judd, Cousins, Kerr' has inspired hope, fear and mainly awe for a generation of football fans - and now two of them are gone.