West Coast football boss John Worsfold confirms Eagles are talking to Nic Naitanui about coaching role

West Coast football boss John Worsfold has confirmed Eagles great Nic Naitanui is interested in taking over as the club’s ruck coach.

Naitanui is considered one of the Eagles’ best ever ruckman alongside Dean Cox, having been a three-time All-Australian and two-time club champion in his 213-game career before he retired in 2023.

And he could help the next generation, with the Eagles looking for a part-time ruck coach to fill the void left by Ryan Turnbull who departed to focus on his work and family.

There has been plenty of speculation that Naitanui could take over the role, with Worsfold confirming they’d been talking to the former first round draftee about what he could do for the group.

“We’ve had a couple of chats with Nic. He’s busy with not only the work he does with the club. It’s amazing the impact he has with what he does with the club at the moment through the Naitanui Academy and some of our NGA (Next Generation Academy) work but assisting our marketing and premium sales teams,” Worsfold told ABC Radio.

“We know what we see of Nic in the way that he played the game and how he conducts himself but just around the club, the work ethic and the commitment he makes is outstanding and he’s got outside business interests as well.

“We’re certainly talking to him, he’s interested. He loves the ruck craft and he really wants to see our ruckmen grow and develop. So if we can work it where it fits in and he can give us a little bit of time we can see the value in that. We’re working through that with Nic and the club at the moment.”

Worsfold said the Eagles also had to add a backline coach to replace long-time assistant Luke Webster with an appointment coming in the next few weeks.

The Eagles have added a key piece however with Fremantle fitness boss Phil Merriman crossing to the rivals this off-season.

“We’ve very excited. When you’re talking to anyone that’s coming from a club that they’ve worked at for a number of years you assess what their role at the club was and how you rate the club,” he said.

“Fremantle have looked a strong and fit young squad out on the field over the last few years. What they’ve built up with some of the young players like (Josh) Treacy and obviously (Luke) Jackson and some other young players like Matt Johnson – they look fit, they look strong.

“And Phil has played a bit part in what they’ve built there. So we’re very excited. We had a good interview with Phil … he’s pretty closely aligned with the style that Mat Innes had so it’s not going to be a massive change.”

Worsfold said the Eagles were reluctant to let Campbell Chesser go to his desired landing spot at Carlton without getting quality compensation.

The Eagles were keen to keep Chesser, offering the 22-year-old a two-year deal to remain at the club despite injury restricting him to only 36 games in four seasons.

Chesser has rejected the offer and wants to join the Blues under coach Michael Voss, returning home to Victoria where he was drafted from with pick No.14 in 2021.

A deal would end a tough stint at the club for the Sandringham product, who missed his entire first year with an ankle injury and only played the final four games of this season after further ankle surgery.

“It was disappointing because we rate Campbell and we worked really hard to get him back into a position where he could improve his footy, stay on the park and show what he could do,” Worsfold told ABC Radio.

“We were really pleased with how he went about it this year and what he showed when he came into the side.

“As a high draft pick who we invested a lot in, we’re very keen to keep him. He wants to explore elsewhere, we would expect that any club that wants to add him to their list would be prepared to offer up something pretty strong to convince us to take that trade deal. That’s just one of those ones we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.”

West Coast are set to be active in the trade period which begins early next month, with premiership forward Liam Ryan also wanting to move to St Kilda on a three-year deal.

Co-captain Oscar Allen is exercising his free agency rights and is set to head to grand finalists Brisbane on a lucrative deal which will land the Eagles band one compensation which is set to be pick No.2

They Eagles have already delisted Callum Jamieson, Loch Rawlison and Jack Petruccelle while premiership duo Jeremy McGovern and Dom Sheed as well as wingman Jayden Hunt all retired.

West Coast are interested in Brisbane duo Brandon Starcevich and Callum Ah Chee, who will both decide on their futures after the grand final against Geelong.