"We Reached Out to Gryan as a Player of Interest" - Don Pyke, West Coast CEO (07.10.2026)

Mark Duffield (0:00)

Welcome back to the SCNWA studio out here at Optus Stadium on this Wednesday morning in Perth. Cloudy in the city today, building to a top of 23 degrees.

Don Pyke, the CEO at the West Coast Eagles, joins us on the show now. They've got a busy trade and draft period ahead of them, but he's taking some time out to chat to us. Pyke, welcome.

Don Pyke (0:20)

Morning, Duff, how you doing?

Mark Duffield (0:21)

I'm going, okay, mate. How's things out at West Coast, and how are things progressing in terms of where Jack Viney is concerned? Because it looks like you are the only contender for his services. Are you guys committed to each other yet, or is there still some water to go under the bridge where that is concerned?

Don Pyke (0:40)

Yeah, there's still a little bit to go under the bridge before we get anything done there. So yeah, but you're right, we've expressed some interest in Jack, and we'll see how that plays out. And we'll see, there's still a week to go in the trade period, and there's a lot sort of moving around at the moment. So sort of clubs are in different spaces, so we'll see how that progresses.

Mark Duffield (1:00)

So is it a case of you trying to decide whether you commit to him, or is he trying to work out whether it's worthwhile shifting his family over here to continue for another maybe two years or so?

Don Pyke (1:13)

A little bit of both. I think we're assessing exactly what it looks like for us. Obviously, the other things we're involved in and talking about as well. So, and then it obviously comes down to the terms around that for us and for Melbourne and for Jack, obviously. But it's all in the mix at the moment. So, we'll see how it ends up.

Mark Duffield (1:31)

Now, Liam Pickering has confirmed that you guys have reached out to Gryan Miers. And obviously, he did a medical with the club. Is Gryan Miers a live chance as a trade option for West Coast?

Don Pyke (1:45)

He is a player we expressed interest in. And you're right, we undertook a medical on Gryan before he, which was sort of done because he was heading away for a lengthy period of time. So, it was sort of need to be done. Otherwise, we weren't going to get a chance to do that.

And obviously, a player we feel can help us with sort of that between the arcs, the connection. We know that sort of quality of player is, it really comes down to a little bit of, well, where does it sit for us? Where's the value? And what is it that Geelong are looking for? But I think it's fair to say that the recent media suggests that he's keen to stay at Geelong and he's a contracted player. And so, it's a fair bit to do to get anything done there, I would suspect.

Mark Duffield (2:23)

Yeah, he's probably reading the play a bit though, isn't he? With the trades they've got to do and what they may need to get them done. Geelong might be looking to harvest a draft pick for Gryan Mies. So, it's an interesting one. The fact that he's agreed to do a medical suggests there has to be at least some interest there.

Don Pyke (2:41)

Yeah, well, certainly, you're not doing a medical if you're not thinking there might be an option that you need to consider.

But again, I don't know whether he's done that with other clubs as well. And they're now aware that he may be a player that could lead the club. Yeah, I suspect there might be other clubs out there for a player of Gryan's capacity and ability to might want to consider that as an option as well. So, we sort of reached out as a player of interest. And as I said, I suspect that it will be interesting to see how it comes about or how it evolves from here, to be honest.

Mark Duffield (3:14)

How many list changes do you expect to make this off season, Pyke, and how many draft picks do you expect to take?

Don Pyke (3:24)

Good question. I think we've already made four with the listings and retirements. I suspect there'll be some more. We're in an interesting position because we obviously brought on some players last year on to our list through preseason and midseason in Murdoch and Franco and Herbert, who all came in and showed they can play AFL footy, and they can play good AFL footy. So there's a little piece which is we've done a little bit of pre-recruiting in some ways. So we look at someone like Franco and say how he was trending in the sample, if he was in this draft or where would he be picked? And our recruiters have their view on that, he was sort of trending towards being a top 25 to 30 top player. So we've probably had a couple of early draft picks. I mean, for us, we've got three, we're going to take three of the draft. We've got 21 and potentially with the compensation, we'll end up with 22 as well.