New West Coast coach Andrew McQualter is ready to “crack in” and lift the club from the AFL doldrums as two Richmond premiership players signal their intent to follow him to the Eagles.
McQualter replaces 2018 premiership coach Adam Simpson, who departed in July this year.
The 38-year-old has been given a three-year contract to lead the Eagles, who finished 16th, 18th and 17th in the past three seasons.
Moment after his appointment was announced on Monday, dual Richmond premiership players Liam Baker and Jack Graham made known their desire for trades to the Eagles.
Both Baker and Graham have strong ties to McQualter, who was a long-time assistant coach at Richmond before being the club’s interim coach for 13 games last year when Damien Hardwick stepped down.
McQualter beat Geelong assistant coach Steven King and Collingwood assistant Hayden Skipworth for the West Coast job.
“I have looked really closely at the list over the last few months whilst in the process for this job,” McQualter said in an interview released by the Eagles ahead of a media conference later Monday.
“And there’s actually a lot of excitement there for me.
“There’s some terrific young players and some guys who haven’t played a lot of footy over the last few years.
“But I think the beauty is we will always be looking to add some new players in and there’s some opportunity that will come for some guys as well.
“It will all kick of straight away which is exciting.
“I’m ready to crack in, the trade period starts next week and I am sure the (Eagles) guys have done a whole heap of work behind the scenes.
“We will be looking to improve the list as much as we can, whether that is via trade or the draft.”
Another dual premiership Tiger, Shai Bolton, has also asked for a trade to Western Australia but has been linked to Fremantle.
McQualter was an assistant to Melbourne’s head coach Simon Goodwin this season.
He joined Richmond in 2013 as a VFL development coach before serving as an assistant to Hardwick from 2016.
McQualter, who was pipped for the Tigers’ full-time head coaching job by Adem Yze at the end of last year, becomes West Coast’s seventh coach in the club’s 38-year history.
“We believe Andrew has the professional and personal qualities and experience required to guide our team,” Eagles chief executive officer Don Pyke said in a statement.
“We were in a fortunate position where we had three exceptional candidates short-listed with Andrew possessing the credentials and vision needed to help us make strong progress.
“Andrew has a firm vision of what needs to be done and is ready to embrace the opportunity of being an AFL senior coach.”
McQualter played 94 AFL games with St Kilda and Gold Coast between 2005 and 2012.
“The type of player I was, I really relied on my football leadership because I probably wasn’t the best player,” he said.
“But I was able to have an influence in different ways and it made me think about the game differently.”
