West Coast players react to the final siren and their 171-point defeat at the SCG last Saturday. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Until only a couple of weeks ago, I thought the on-field comparisons between Fitzroy of 1996 and West Coast of today were ridiculous hyperbole. But not any longer.

You can’t argue with the facts. The Eagles’ four 100-points-plus beltings now equals the four Fitzroy suffered in the protracted death throes that were its last season.

And even then the Lions managed to find at least enough to last a month between those ugly hidings. Whereas West Coast has now lost by more than 100 points three times in just five games, Saturday’s disgraceful 171-point shellacking against Sydney the fourth-highest margin in league history.

On Saturday night, I spoke to a former AFL player who’d been on the wrong end of one of league history’s 20 worst canings. More than a decade later, the shame of that performance still pops up like a recurring nightmare.

Are the Eagles who took to the SCG on Saturday likely to be similarly haunted? You suspect not, for several reasons.

One, half-a-dozen of West Coast’s side against the Swans have been part of an AFL premiership (and if you count Andrew Gaff, who missed out suspended, seven). Whatever happens to them now, they’ll always have that. Two, seven current Eagles are 31 or older and know the end is nigh anyway.

And point three, if it’s taken three of the worst performances in the club’s history in just over a month to embarrass these guys sufficiently, at just what level of delusion have they been operating?

Or indeed are still, if you read the statement to West Coast members released by the club on Sunday, which finished with the chest-thumping: “We can do it together”, somewhat ironic given the Eagles have been famous for being the very antithesis of an inclusive, open-minded and honest organization, and the very definition of one which is secretive, exclusive and convinced of its own infallibility.

Having said that, I actually agree with the main purpose of the statement, which was to maintain support for coach Adam Simpson, at least for now, anyway. And that’s because it’s pretty clear changing the bus driver won’t make a lot of difference given the state of the bus.

How has West Coast allowed things to deteriorate to this level? By being conditioned to getting by on its wealth of resources, its overwhelmingly supportive natural habitat, and because (until the past two years) some by and large acceptable results.

The rot was setting in from not long after that famous 2018 premiership, but whereas a leaner, hungrier organisation more desperate for genuine success might have made some bold calls on players, lists and coaches, the Eagles were content to think they were around the mark with only minimal change required.

In 2019, West Coast went from second on the ladder and near flag favouritism after 20 rounds to out of the top four and a doomed finals campaign with losses in the last two games. In 2020, the Eagles infamously grumbled about quarantine arrangements during their stay in a Queensland hub, recovered at home to win eight games on the trot, then blew a home final against a big underdog in Collingwood.

PLEASE HELP US CONTINUE TO THRIVE BY BECOMING AN OFFICIAL FOOTYOLOGY PATRON. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.

Those were the signs of a soft underbelly, but they only really became blindingly obvious post the epic Round 13 2021 victory over reigning premier Richmond. Talk about last hurrahs. Since that moment, the Eagles have won just five of 45 games.

Yes, injuries have been catastrophic. And early last year, unavailabilities through Covid. But did the Eagles start asking questions about their own fitness and medical programs early enough, or was it more convenient and less challenging just to write it all off as bad luck?

What about recruiting and list management? West Coast chairman Paul Fitzpatrick can talk all he likes to members about the “long-term strategy revolv(ing) around bringing in more high-end young talent through the draft to lay solid foundations for the next era”.

But the delay in making that philosophical call and the opportunities missed in failing to do so for too long are going to delay the realisation of that next era significantly.

And that’s not just about the Tim Kelly trade and the four draft picks over two years given up as a result.

Former Giant Zac Langdon, former Lion Alex Witherden, former Blue Sam Petrevski-Seton and former Demon Jayden Hunt, too, have been imported at a time West Coast might have been picking, developing, then establishing younger talent.

Now add the senior citizen brigade – no fewer than seven players now 31 and older – and the dearth of young talent coming into the mix becomes easier to understand. That, however, doesn’t make it any more forgivable, particularly given how little time so many of those veterans have spent on the park.

Finally, the heat is starting to come on West Coast from areas where it may actually make a difference. A local media which has become less prepared to sing from the club’s hymn book. Chief executive Trevor Nisbett’s resolutely “old school” approach to football management is starting to look more and more like an anachronism which won’t be politely overlooked much longer without the flags to back it up.

And frustrated fans who have got heartily sick of the Eagles’ famous “leave it to us, we know what we’re doing. And a head office at the AFL which knows it can’t afford to have any club as uncompetitive as the Eagles are at the moment for too long.

But let’s also hope that the league doesn’t augment West Coast’s emergence from the dark with draft assistance it doesn’t require and frankly, doesn’t deserve. Nor that it forgets the most fundamental differences between Fitzroy of 1996 and the Eagles of today.

The Lions of 27 years ago were – literally – broke, unable to attract, recruit or keep players of decent calibre, and with inadequate facilities to nurture sufficiently those they were able to get. In the end, not only did they have no money, they literally had no hope.

That is the antithesis of West Coast even now in its darkest hour. Yes, there are caps in place on spending and structure, but the Eagles will never want for access to the very best of what the system does have to offer.

And that, not gifted draft picks, should be motivation enough for a club which has grown fat and lazy to get off its you-know-what and get back into shape on and off the field.

This article first appeared at ESPN.