West Coast coach Adam Simpson has downplayed the club’s “unfortunate” early casualties as it looks to avoid another injury cruelled-season.
But luck hasn’t been on their side so far, as just days into the 2024 pre-season, they lost star forward Liam Ryan to a serious hamstring injury.
Ryan hurt his hamstring at training on Monday – the opposite to the one the high-flying forward had surgery on last year, restricting him to three games – while Coby Burgiel experienced hamstring tightness and several others were absent on the track.
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While Burgiel’s strain is minor, Ryan will miss Round 1 and potentially longer.
“Unfortunately, Liam has suffered a high-grade hamstring injury with some tendon damage which will require surgery to repair,” Eagles GM of football Gavin Bell said.
“We are all really disappointed for Liam. He had been working hard this pre-season and over the Christmas break to be ready to go when we start playing practice matches.
“We’re hopeful he will be available to return in the early rounds of the season. The Club will provide an update on his return to play timeframe in due course following surgery.”
It comes after the club was riddled by injuries the past two seasons in a period it won just five games including claiming the wooden spoon last year.
Simpson however maintained a younger age profile would lead to more player availability across the board.
“There’s always going to be injuries, we had two of three today, which was unfortunate,” Simpson said on Monday.
“I suppose it starts in the off-season in what the players do, how they go about it and how they turn up and what kind of program we put in place. That started September or October, it goes back to there.
“The biggest difference is going to be the type of players we have on our list.”
Elsewhere, the club’s two top picks from the 2022 draft, Reueben Ginbey (managed workload) and Elijah Hewett (blisters/foot), will be gradually reintegrated into the program in the coming weeks, while and Josh Rothan (groin awareness) was also missing from training and Dom Sheed (foot) is nearing running again.
“I just don’t think we can look back … we’re just looking forward,” Simpson added.
“There’s going to be ups and downs and some issues we haven’t seen yet that are going to come up, that’s just the industry.
“To learn from what we did the last few years, that’s definitely happened, but we’re not going to keep feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to move forward and get onto positives.”
The Eagles in the off-season overhauled their strength and conditioning staff, with Matthew Inness taking over as their new high performance manager and Paul Turk crossing from Collingwood.
As much as the Eagles were hoping to get a better run of health, the young side is focused on finding its “identity” after “starting from scratch,” Simpson said.
“It’s a different approach (with the new strength and conditioning team), but not massively different. It’s probably more the change in personnel the last two or three years that we’ll see a change in the availability,” the Eagles coach noted.
“I think the older players on their last legs have moved on, so the list is younger, and that just gives you different avenues and opportunities to train a bit harder or train a bit more. But also get them up to speed as well.
“We’ve said this before, half our list is under 22, it’s just going to feel different with what we do.
“I think this time last year we had 40-odd training as well. It’s just trying to get that resilience in the players, and then maintain it.”
Simpson also suggested No. 1 draft pick Harley Reid would likely start his career off half back – similar to the past two Risng Star winners Harry Sheezel and Nick Daicos.
“I think there’ll be a little bit of back and a little bit of on-ball is what I’m seeing at the moment. But he goes forward and has a bit of presence there as well,” he said.
“We need to settle him, that’s for sure, we’re working on that now. But more than likely to be down back and a little bit of on-ball at the moment.”
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