Jake Waterman Watch as Cooper Duff-Tytler Pulled Before Essendon
jake waterman was still part of the final-team picture Thursday as West Coast pulled Cooper Duff-Tytler out of its WAFL side hours before the club met Essendon at Optus Stadium. Duff-Tytler, West Coast’s AFL emergency, had been set to line up for the reserves against Peel Thunder before the switch.
The move left West Coast with a live selection decision and pointed Duff-Tytler back toward the senior side after he had been named in the reserves on Wednesday. The club said it would lock in its final team for the Bombers at 4.20pm, an hour before the match.
West Coast’s late Duff-Tytler call
Duff-Tytler was withdrawn from the Peel Thunder game just hours before the AFL clash and replaced by Sasha Kernutt in the WAFL side. Tom Gross and Clay Hall were also named as emergencies for West Coast’s Essendon game, but they were locked in for the reserves trip to Mineral Resources Park in wet and windy conditions at Lathlain.
The timing mattered because Duff-Tytler had already been in and out of West Coast’s senior plans. The 18-year-old, a 200cm ruck-forward taken with the No. 4 selection in last year’s draft, played the first nine games of the AFL season before he was rested for the upset win over Greater Western Sydney earlier this month.
McQualter’s selection squeeze
He then missed out on the Collingwood game, with Jack Williams preferred instead. After that omission, Andrew McQualter said Duff-Tytler was “really stiff” to miss selection, adding: “I think he probably played his best game prior to resting him but I just spoke to Coop and was really honest, and I said ‘the way that our guys performed last week it was difficult to make changes’,”
McQualter also said: “That’s a good problem for our club to have and Cooper understood. He gets to go work on his craft at WAFL level and I look forward to him playing and keep doing what he’s doing.” Duff-Tytler’s last WAFL outing backed that up, with 15 disposals, 19 hit-outs and two goals against East Fremantle.
Optus Stadium team watch
The late withdrawal from the reserves side kept attention on West Coast’s final AFL list for Essendon and on whether Duff-Tytler would be one of the changes at Optus Stadium. For West Coast, the immediate decision was simple: one emergency moved closer to the senior team, and the reserves side lost the player it had named only a day earlier.
