Braden Quartermaine: We’ve never understood West Cost Eagles forward Jack Darling and probably never will

Well this is one way to solve the problem of where to play Oscar Allen. It’s about the only positive West Coast can take from Jack Darling’s stunning apparent refusal to get vaccinated, potentially ending his season or even career at 29. Veteran Josh Kennedy and prized youngster Allen pick themselves for the key forward posts for as long as Darling is absent. If there’s anywhere on the field the Eagles might have coverage to lose someone, it’s in their key forward stocks. But that hardly makes it ideal. Kennedy’s 34-year-old legs and screaming Achilles tendons will be more suited to cameo roles in between regular rests in his 17th and likely final season. Not being the main man. And while Allen looks to have all the tools, he’s rarely had to play as even the second key forward to this point. Let alone be the focal point. Darling was meant to shepherd Allen’s career for a few more years yet. If he doesn’t come back and Kennedy retires, Allen will feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. When Kennedy and fellow veteran Shannon Hurn elected to play on, little did the Eagles know just how important they would become given the turn of events with Brad Sheppard and now Darling. Darling has long been a riddle wrapped in a mystery. Consistently inconsistent, the 2019 All-Australian has struggled to maintain a level output throughout a game let alone a season. Yet he’s kicked 450 goals at almost two per match. Darling teased us for the first half of 2018 with such an imperious swagger it recalled Wayne Carey’s best. The umpires humorously overlooked him for the three Brownlow votes, but his six-goal, 15-mark masterpiece against Richmond in round nine, 2018, was the game of his life. A West Coast teammate once remarked that if the Eagles had coughed up the 2018 grand final after Darling spilt a late sitter in front of goal, he wouldn’t have been able to play for the club again. Now there’s no guarantee he will. As a 13-year-old man child, Darling carried a hamstring injury into a grand final to not let his Sorrento-Duncraig teammates down. He will now be slammed in some quarters for committing football’s ultimate sin – letting your teammates down. But Darling’s extraordinary decision also works contrary to the traditionally held notion of disloyalty in football. When a player attempts to walk out on his club during the trade period, the motivating factor is usually money. Getting more of it. If Darling’s stance means he doesn’t play for the Eagles again, he will actually be giving up money. Plenty of it. Under the AFL’s rules for players who refuse to get vaccinated, Darling could be placed on an inactive list and paid the minimum base salary or his contract terminated altogether if he is still not vaccinated by May 18. Gun midfielder Tim Kelly is also understood to have been vaccine hesitant before falling into line at crunch time. The interesting thing about the star pair who dragged their feet this summer is that they were the two players who had the most to lose financially. Both Darling and Kelly are contracted for four more years until the end of 2025, meaning they are each still owed in the vicinity of $3m on their existing deals. While much of it has bubbled under the surface, it’s becoming obvious the Eagles are enduring their most tumultuous summer since the dramatic aftermath of the 2007 season, when Chris Judd departed for Carlton and Ben Cousins was sacked. Missing the finals last season for the first time in seven years led to a considerable overhaul of the football department and coaching team, with the club opting for a new way to play after some internal reckoning. The handling of popular defender Sheppard’s sad exit is understood to have upset some players and that issue may have a way to play out. West Coast now have the AFL’s highest-profile and highest-paid anti-vaxxer, at a time good relations with the State government and WA Police will be critical as they seek to find a way to stage games at home under closed border arrangements. Darling’s explosive Instagram post made the situation even murkier. What a truly astounding time we’re living in. No sports story seems too fanciful. An AFL grand final in Perth? Sure. The Australian Test captain’s career over for sending a dick pic? Tick. The number one tennis player in the world locked up in immigration detention and booted out of the country as he attempted to become the greatest player of all time? Bingo. We’ll let you know when Nat Fyfe announces his retirement to travel to Mars with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.