Mitchell Woodcock: Why West Coast star Tim Kelly has every right to have lost his love for footy

Tim Kelly’s admission that he had fallen out of love with football came as a shock, but should not be a surprise. The West Coast superstar has been the intense focus of Eagles’ fans and critics since the moment he walked into the club in late 2019. And it is not his fault. The Eagles were rightly criticised for the enormous price they paid — which was two first-round draft picks as well as a second and a third — to bring Kelly back to WA after only two seasons at Geelong. Kelly wanted to return home for family reasons and while the Cats accommodated it, they wanted to be rightly compensated for a player who was an All-Australian midfielder and had finished in the top five of the Brownlow Medal. The South Fremantle product will always be linked with the heavy price and as a result has been forced to bare the brunt of the frustrations in his five seasons at the club. Making it worse is that instead of winning a fifth flag at the club as planned just years after being the toast of the AFL in 2018, the Eagles sharply fell of a cliff into the worst era in their existence. But again, none of this is Kelly’s fault. In fact, the midfielder has held up his end of the bargain incredibly well. Kelly won a John Worsfold Medal in 2023 as the club champion and has finished seventh, sixth, third and 10th in his other four seasons at Mineral Resources Park. He has never averaged below 20 disposals in a season, missed only 12 games in five years and has at times shouldered the load in the midfield when other stars were sidelined. To put it frankly, Kelly should be heralded for his past few years. Instead, the instant reaction to his honesty on Wednesday was of anger from many. Kelly’s frustration is not misplaced. The Eagles have won only 10 games in the past three years. To put it in further perspective, Kelly won 30 of his 48 games he played in two seasons at Geelong. He’s won only 29 of 96 at West Coast. Kelly shouldn’t be criticised for his admission about his loss of love for the game. Instead, he should be praised for it. And it should be a motivating factor for the Eagles as they look to rebuild this club on the field.