Unsung Heroes Of The AFL | Thebigtip

The great rise of the West Coast Eagles this season has been a fascination for many but it got me thinking of something I haven't really thought about too much about before.

Bill Sutherland is a name many people from the eastern states would never have heard of. In fact, a lot of Eagles fans would of never heard of him. He is a trainer at the Eagles and attended every game from the clubs inception up until a couple of years ago and is even a hall of fame member now. He might have even been pulled out of retirement but for that I can't be sure. There isn't a lot written on the man apart from that he is now a lifetime member of the West Coast Eagles, not bad for a trainer. In any case, attending every Eagles game for a period of more than 20 years is a remarkable effort and one that goes for the most part, unrecognised.

This led me to another division of West Coast's staff that has seemingly never let them down; the development staff. Let's not forget that the Eagles have never had a number one draft pick, yet they make a grand final every four to five years, this season pending. Of every team in the AFL, West Coast seems to get more out of the second tier players than anyone else. Rowan Jones was an average footballer at best, but the blue and gold untilised him and without him, the 2006 premiership may have alluded them. Last season you could have been excused for thinking players such as Will Schofield, Scott Selwood and Ashley Smith were simply making up numbers in a competition cellar dwellar. This wasn't the case; the Eagles saw something and this season have been handsomely repayed. Mark Nicoski's redovelopment as a forward may be the best trick of the lot.

Development staff are important but if you have a poor drafting team, this will count for little. You can have the best development staff in the country and still get nowhere if you've drafted a spud as the West Coast have found with Jarrad Oakley-Nicchols, perhaps the worst top 10 pick of all time. This brings me to the unsung heroes of Geelong.

The Cats have finished in the bottom four once since 1990, yet they've been the strongest team of the past two decades. The Cats only have four genuine top 10 guns at the club - Joel Corey, Joel Selwood, Jimmy Bartel and Andrew Mackie. Even Gary Ablett and Matthew Scarlett (the two father-son selections) wouldn't have gone top 10. They were average juniors at best and perhaps never would have become the players they are if they hadn't been the sons of their fathers.

There are plenty of other unsung heroes; the Fremantle Dockers and their mature age recruiting for instance. Plus many more names like Bill Sutherland that we never ever think of. At the end of the day a football club is a business and the success stories of that business are often behind closed doors. What we see about AFL in the media is little more than face value.