WEST Coast has focused on embedding the set shot routines of its promising young key forwards, with a perfect goalkicking performance against North Melbourne giving the exciting group early-season vindication. 

Tall trio Cooper Duff-Tytler, Archer Reid and round two Rising Star Jobe Shanahan all kicked 2.0 against the Kangaroos last Sunday in a clutch performance that went a long way to sealing the 17-point win. 

Four of those six goals were from set shots, including long-range efforts on difficult angles from Shanahan and Reid, while Duff-Tytler showed his outstanding agility at ground level for one of his two goals.  

The emerging talls have worked tirelessly on their goalkicking with forwards coach Marco Bello, watching replays of their shots during training on iPads and logging whether they have stuck to their routine for each shot.  

Bello, who has a long history as a successful development coach, said it was crucial to embed a strong goalkicking routine for the tall forwards early in their careers and the performance against the Kangaroos was reward for effort. 

"You hear all the greats speak about their goalkicking prowess, whether it be a Matthew Lloyd or even a current player like Jeremy Cameron, and they speak about the comfort of a routine and the ability to make it consistent," Bello told AFL.com.au. 

"So if we're able to impart that knowledge and they're able to put it into effect early, it is going to hold them in good stead. 

"It's something they've put a lot of work into, so it's great from a coaching perspective to see everything we've been speaking about transferred on game day. 

"In pressure moments and with a big crowd, for them be able to execute their routine and ultimately kick the goal is great from a team perspective and an individual perspective after all the hard work they've been putting in." 

Bello, who has worked with Adelaide sharpshooter Taylor Walker among other key forwards over 13 years in the AFL, spoke with the young trio over the pre-season about what they wanted their goalkicking routines to look like.

The aim was to make the routines simple so they can stand up under pressure, with a clear difference evident in Reid's goalkicking after booting 5.10 in his 14 games last season.  

Bello said the young trio, who are all aged between 18-20, had shown an appetite for putting in extra work on their goalkicking craft as well as their marking with aerial specialist Harry Taylor and Jacob Brennan. 

All-Australian key forward Jake Waterman has also played a key role in mentoring them, with premiership small forward Jamie Cripps a wise teammate they can call on in attack.  

"What I love is that while they're respectful and modest, they've got a fierce competitiveness about them and a little bit of cheek as well, which is always nice for a tall forward," Bello said. 

"They've got great footy IQ as well and they're certainly workshopping amongst each other on what each of their strengths are and how to use them to combat the opposition. 

"Hopefully we get the opportunity where they just grow and create great synergy amongst the three of them." 

Champion key forward Josh Kennedy is the Eagles' all-time leading goalkicker after retiring at the end of 2022 with 712 goals for West Coast and 723 overall after booting 11 in his first two seasons with Carlton. 

The spearhead got a call from Archer Reid during the pre-season after all of the Eagles' development players were asked to call a past Eagle and learn about what it means to represent the club.  

Kennedy said he had been impressed with the three young talls and had a good conversation with Reid about the transition from worrying about yourself as a player to worrying more about the club. 

"Arch gave us a call before round one, which was great, and it was good to chat to him and give a little bit insight into what I thought about the club and things like training," Kennedy told AFL.com.au.

"It's great when you have young players like that reaching out to past players at the club and we spoke a fair bit about a lot of stuff.

"As a young player coming in, you really just want to get the best out of yourself and you want to try and be the best player you can be. 

"So you start out playing a little bit for the number on your back, but you end up playing for what's on the front, which is the club. 

"We spoke about that, and the significance of being able to play for a great club like West Coast."

Kennedy said he had been impressed by the work ethic of the club's young talls, as well as their ability to coordinate together in the forward line alongside senior teammate Waterman. 

He said the versatility that each possessed was an exciting asset for the Eagles as they look to accelerate through the next stage of their rebuild. 

"Seeing Jobe swing back and go forward on the weekend, he looked pretty comfortable being able to do that, which is great for him," Kennedy said. 

"And for Cooper and Arch to take a couple of big pack marks, and then Cooper at ground level to be able to pick it up one touch and create goals inside 50, it's pretty special to watch.

"There weren't too many incidents where they were jumping into each other or taking each other's space, so they've definitely got good awareness of where each other are on the ground and being able to replace each other." 

Shanahan won the Telstra AFL Rising Star nomination in round two for his performance against the Kangaroos, with the 19-year-old Moama product highlighting the impact Waterman has made on him, including on a road trip to Northam during the pre-season. 

The 195cm goalkicker said he was loving his time in Perth, with the Eagles young players building a strong bond as they start their AFL careers.  

"We obviously started pre-season pretty early then went into camp, so we're all just a tight-knit group and just a bunch of great mates," Shanahan said. 

"'Mini' (Andrew McQualter) calls us brothers (and) we really pride ourselves on being a close group. That's what our culture is built on."