Premiership Eagle Will Schofield believes in-form Western Bulldogs ruck Tim English must be his club’s top trade priority while also targeting other WA products.
Wooden spoon favourites West Coast is set to be one of the most active clubs in the upcoming off-season as the club prepares to make significant changes and turn its list into one of the youngest in the AFL.
Both English and star Bulldogs teammate Aaron Naughton, who also hails from Perth, are contracted until the end of 2024 but remain on the radar of several clubs – in particular the Eagles, who have been urged to trade their likely Pick 1 to bolster their meagre playing stocks.
Watch every match of every round of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
West Coast remains on the lookout for a successor to Nic Naitanui, with English – the current favourite to be named the 2023 All-Australian ruck – expected to be the club’s top focus.
English, who owns a house in Perth and whose partner plays netball for the West Coast Fever, is a free agent in 2024, whereas Naughton would just be out of contract.
Speaking on Fox Sports News’ AFL Tonight, Schofield said the Eagles should be doing “everything in their power” to convince English to join them.
What now for Eagles at ‘low point’ | 05:17
“They’ve been spoken about, both Aaron Naughton from a key-position sense and Tim English is the best ruckman in the competition right now. English is the one, he’s the free agent (next year),” Schofield told AFL Tonight.
“Naughton you’d have to spend a fair bit and some of those really high draft picks to get him, whereas Tim English you get him for free.
“I think if he wants to move, he’ll be moving to West Coast. That’s not saying the Western Bulldogs won’t be able to keep him, but the West Coast Eagles should be doing everything in their power to get someone like Tim English to the footy club.”
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge earlier this month said his club would “pull out all stops” to keep English, whose next contract offer could be upwards of $900,000 a season.
“It’s common, it’s understandable, especially the boys from those states, and teams might have lower picks that they may want to use and all that sort of stuff. We are used to it,” Beveridge said.
“But we’re doing everything we can to make sure we are in a position to retain Tim, and I think Aaron has been spoken about as well.”
West Coast coach Adam Simpson earlier this month said his club had a clear plan to regenerate the playing list via upcoming national drafts, declaring: “We’re going to transition the list pretty quickly, it’s going to be one of the youngest lists in the comp in a year or so.”
Schofield, who played 194 games across 14 seasons for West Coast, urged the Eagles to target WA-based talent.
Asked if West Coast should consider WA products like Hawthorn’s Denver Grainger-Barras (contracted until 2024), Deven Robertson (2023) and Jeremy Sharp (2023), Schofield said: “Those three names are, I guess not out of favour, but they’ve been in and out of their sides this year – and a couple of those guys are really high picks in their respective drafts.
“I think West Coast need to scour, high and low, West Australians, because realistically you don’t have many guys coming to West Coast from interstate. Jack Redden’s probably the guy I think of immediately, but other than that there’s not a great deal of interstaters coming to West Coast.
Eagles great fears for ex-club | 05:37
“Those three names are important, but probably more important are Naughton and English.”
The Eagles this weekend face St Kilda after their humiliating club-record 171-point loss to Sydney last weekend – their fourth loss by over 100 points from their past eight games.
Amid the pressure on coach Simpson, club chairman Paul Fitzpatrick declared on Sunday the Eagles “do have faith that Adam can take this team forward and we also believe in the path we need to take to fight our way back”.
West Coast confirmed on Monday night its long-time fitness boss Warren Kofoed would depart the club at the end of the season.
Schofield fears more people would leave the club if West Coast put in another horror show against St Kilda on Sunday.
“I’ve heard ‘effort’ thrown around a lot and I understand that from fans that it looks like the players aren’t trying, but I can almost guarantee players are trying,” he said.
“They are trying – but it starts getting put in the wrong areas. You mentally go to the wrong space, you start doing things that you’ve been taught your whole life (not to do) and you start going against the grain of fundamental football. I don’t think it’s so much effort.
“Preparing to play after a loss like that, the only way is up … I’d like to think there’d be a response from the group. If there’s not, there’ll be a wide, sweeping range of people losing their jobs almost immediately. If they lose by over 100 points, there’ll be a lot of jobs lost the following (week).”
— NCA NewsWire
Discussion about this post