AFL Trades 2024: West Coast fans slam club for trading out pick No.3 for Liam Baker and Matt Owies

West Coast fans have been left seething after the club’s controversial call to trade away their top draft pick, with some supporters labelling the move a “disgrace” and an “absolute joke”.

It came as AFL analysts including Kane Cornes and Will Schofield were left similarly bemused by the deal, which saw the Eagles cough up pick No.3 to land out-of-contract duo Liam Baker and Matt Owies on Tuesday.

There was even a thread on a football forum calling for a protest at the club about the controversial trade.

The Eagles slid back to pick No.12 to bring in both Baker and Owies as part of a three-club deal with Richmond and Carlton that supporters believe is a massive loss for the struggling club.

It comes on the back of a frustrating three seasons for their fans who have watched as the club has won only 10 games and gone through considerable change, including parting ways with premiership coach Adam Simpson and chief executive Trevor Nisbett.

There had been plenty of optimism around the club under its new leadership of new CEO Don Pyke, but fans have been left bewildered after the latest trade move.

Richmond have received pick No.14 in the deal, while Carlton got pick No.3, 63 and 68.

It has left the Eagles with picks 12 and 73, as well as Baker and Owies, with fans adamant they’ve lost out.

“WCE list management is a complete and utter joke, no other words for it. Complete debacle. This will go down as another joke of a trade like the Kelly deal. Running the club even further into the ground,” Josh Atkinson wrote on Facebook.

“This is an absolute joke. The Eagles have learnt absolutely nothing from the (Tim) Kelly deal,” Ian Garlett wrote.

“What a joke. Have we learnt nothing from Harley (Reid). Get the best young kind you can. trading back and padding the list with ok player might help us win couple more games but it’s not going to win us a flag,” Ryan McCallum wrote.

“WC (West Coast) list management errors got us into a terrible position. Matt Clarke has somehow made it way worse,” Michael Islip wrote.

“Never been more disappointed in the club than I am right now In one of the deepest drafts of recent times we have picks 12 and 26 after finishing 16th Maybe we get something for Barrass but that looks like future picks only,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

“Giving up pick 3 for essentially two mediocre players and pick 12 is a DISGRACE. The West Coast Eagles deserve to remain anchored to the bottom of the ladder until the entire recruiting department is overhauled,” another fan on Twitter wrote.

“Now I’ve had a chance to sleep on it and look on it with fresh eyes … it’s still an inexplicably horrible deal. And now somehow West Coast are the ones offering a late sweetener? This is the sort of trade that Gold Coast, and Fremantle of the early 90s, got laughed at for,” Miguel Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

More to come