WEST Coast head of development Jamie Maddocks was at the Western Bulldogs in 2015 when coach Luke Beveridge tasked him with turning his group into the best handballing team in the League.
Beaten by Adelaide in an elimination final, Beveridge wanted to implement a game style that included lightning-fast handballs to work out of traffic, with Maddocks introducing the now storied "handball club", which played a key role in the 2016 premiership.
Ten years on, and on the other side of the country, Maddocks is again focused on the fundamentals as he enters his second season leading the Eagles' revamped development program, which is known internally as the Matt Priddis Academy (MPA).
The Eagles aren't looking to become the League's best handballing team at this stage and understand patience will be required, but they've re-designed their development program to put a bigger focus on fundamentals and want to work as hard as anyone on that part of the game.
"We've had a really big overhaul in our fundamentals program and I really wanted to take it back to the Bulldogs days of doing things like building a handball club, for example," Maddocks told AFL.com.au.
"We're going through all the fundamentals in the program – kicking, groundball, handball … and to be honest, I haven't seen the volume of fundamentals before that we've done this summer.
"It doesn't mean it pays off now, but it pays off in a year. It pays off in two years. That's what happens.
"We know we've got a lot of gaps to fill and the competition to chase, so we're tipping work into every part of the fundamentals … because they work, and they give you the best chance to succeed."
Maddocks has kept a low profile but developed a strong reputation in the AFL industry, with the Eagles targeting him ahead of coach Andrew McQualter's first season and giving him licence to make significant changes to the development program.
A three-time premiership player with St Bedes/Mentone under Beveridge, his career in coaching started with the Dandenong Stingrays before moving to the Oakleigh Chargers and Vic Metro. Then in 2015, Beveridge called and said he needed his former player at the Bulldogs.
Passionate about development, there is a case that Maddocks has now landed at the perfect club at the perfect time to make maximum impact, with the Eagles entering 2026 with 21 players in their development group.
"On a normal list of 44 (the Eagles have an expanded list of 48), that's nearly half your list in the first three years of their career. It's a huge cohort," Maddocks said.
"In my time at the Western Bulldogs, the maximum we would have had is 12, so it's an overwhelming amount of youth but it's an absolute opportunity and it's exciting.
"Our job is to try and bring that group through all together. We know that every year one or two always drop off. That's just what happens at clubs.
"But if we can get this critical mass through, this group here could shape the club for years to come."
While the senior coach and general manager of football are always critical figures in a football program, there are other roles that ebb and flow and become more important at different stages of a list build.
Head of development and development coaches are among those roles, and for clubs like West Coast and Richmond with massive development programs, they are central figures right now.
A large development group comes with challenges and requires the coaches to be innovative and find impactful ways for the group to learn as topics like nutrition, preparation, sleep and life balance are covered.
An example this week saw all West Coast development players given the task of calling a past player and gaining a better understanding of their responsibility as current players to improve and compete in the club jumper.
"We know that if we don't tap into our history and these players don't understand the responsibility they have to build and get better now, it will take longer," Maddocks said.
"I know young Tylah Williams was paired up with Phil Matera, and Phil spoke to John Worsfold afterwards at the WA Football Hall of Fame and just couldn't believe how good the conversation with Tylah was.
"Tylah is a quiet, unassuming young man, but they had a great conversation for nearly 30 minutes. Tylah gained some insights from a professional who's been a very good player at this club, and then you've got a past player who feels more connected to the club than he did prior to that call.
"So we want to make sure [the past players] feel connected and we're learning from them."
As well as Maddocks, the development coaching team at West Coast includes 2018 premiership captain and games record holder Shannon Hurn, past player and father-son selection Jacob Brennan, and Subiaco great and now WAFL Eagles coach Kyal Horsley. But there are plenty more who pitch in.
Leadership and performance consultant and Geelong dual premiership defender Harry Taylor is an influential figure, champion ruckman Nic Naitanui is in the building, and assistant coaches Luke Shuey and Mitch Duncan have recent experience as elite players.
The physical environment that they coach in has changed too, with Maddocks moving the development team from a stark office space and into the former players' lounge, fitting the area out with a pool table, pinball machine, arcade, televisions, compression recovery boots, and comfortable chairs.
"It's a room that players want to come to, so they come in and all of a sudden, it turns to football and you're having informal education and informal chats," Maddocks said.
"We've really tried to make our room interactive, and you build a room where people want to be and, all of a sudden, amazing things happen."
The job of the Eagles' development players, like second-year midfielder Tom Gross or recent draftee Josh Lindsay, is to push past the senior players. But it will happen at different rates for different players.
Players like Lindsay and fellow draftee Cooper Duff-Tytler, and second-year wingman Hamish Davis, have shown quickly that they are hungry for professional structures and workloads, while others arrive in the AFL greener.
Davis in particular has emerged as a leader among the development players, alongside star midfielder Harley Reid, driving standards and influencing players to spend more time working on their craft in the indoor training space.
Training in small groups in 'the shed' had become a rarity for a previous generation of players that battled frequent injuries, but the young Eagles have turned that around and made it normal again.
"He (Davis) is probably the number one player who's out on the shed floor. He comes in and asks, 'who's going to help me today', and he brings two players with him, so all of a sudden, the tide is rising and we're getting better as a group," Maddocks said.
"When I got here, not many players were out there, but we've turned that around. These are young guys with no injuries and a lot of time on their hands, so let's not spend it in the ice bath sometimes, let's go out and get 100 balls off the rebounder.
"Our job is to teach them that, and to their credit, they've taken it and run with it."
The Eagles' development group is not just made up of 18- to 21-year-olds like Jobe Shanahan, Archer Reid, and No.1 pick Willem Duursma. It includes mature-age recruits Milan Murdock and Tom McCarthy, who are both 25.
Like all players in the development program, they carry around a guided journal with Priddis on the cover and the quote popularised by US president John F Kennedy that "a rising tide lifts all boats".
An ultimate professional across 240 games from 2006-2017 and the 2014 Brownlow medallist, Priddis addressed the development players last year when their Academy was named after him, providing a "beacon" for the young players as they look to develop AFL habits and standards.
"We use Matt Priddis here for an example of dedication, time on task, [and a player who] didn't get a chance, because we want their characteristics to be the same," Maddocks said.
"We can align the program to any superstar we want, but sometimes those intangibles around work ethic, behaviours, habits are the most important.
"If I had to sum up what the MPA is supposed to be, we're trying to build professionals, and he (Priddis) had a personal system that allowed him to get from missing drafts to being one of the champions of this club.
"He was just hard-nosed player who did the right thing at the right time. If we have 21 of those in our MPA group, we'll be OK."
