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Former West Coast Eagle Adrian Barich says pre-season derbies are ‘crazy’ following injury carnage

The West Australian
VideoWATCH: Rory Lobb headed straight down into the rooms after this ugly twist to his right knee.

Inaugural West Coast Eagle Adrian Barich believes pre-season derbies are ‘crazy’ and shouldn’t be staged due to too much being on the line.

The comments come following yesterday’s bruising encounter, which saw a brutal head knock, a bad knee injury, hamstring concerns, a rolled ankle and another head clash that required stitches.

West Coast and Fremantle played each other twice in the space of eight days due to the AFL limiting interstate travel amid border closure concerns.

The Saturday 27th February clash was a scratch match, while yesterday’s match was the clubs’ sole AAMI Community pre-season match.

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“I reckon pre-season derbies are crazy,” Barich said on 94.5FM.

“There’s way too much at stake for the players. It’s the battle of the people who live up the road, the south vs north, all that sort of stuff.

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“They go way too hard. It’s been carnage out of the derby.”

The 7NEWS sport presenter went on to detail the extent of the damage less than two weeks out from round one, where West Coast will meet Gold Coast and the Dockers face off against Melbourne.

“We’ve got Rory Lobb, who fumbled the ball and got absolutely crunched in the tackle by Tom Cole, looks like he’s got a knee injury, we don’t know how serious it is,” Barich said.

“The coach (Justin Longmuir) said last night it’s perhaps not the worst case scenario of season over, they’re feeling it’ll probably be a medial ligament.

“He’ll probably miss five or six weeks so he’ll miss the start of the season. Then Michael Walters, I think Walters is a garden variety hamstring, which is four weeks.

PERTH, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 07: Zac Langdon of the Eagles is attended to by trainers after a head clash with Nat Fyfe of the Dockers during the AFL Community Series match between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers at Optus Stadium on March 07, 2021 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Camera IconPERTH, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 07: Zac Langdon of the Eagles is attended to by trainers after a head clash with Nat Fyfe of the Dockers during the AFL Community Series match between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers at Optus Stadium on March 07, 2021 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images) Credit: Getty Images

“It’s two weeks until the season so he’ll probably miss two or three games at the start of the season but you will get all the boys back - (Andy) Brayshaw, (Caleb) Serong, (Adam) Cerra, Luke Ryan, so the calvary will arrive but it’s not ideal. Particularly Rory Lobb because they don’t have a lot of big guys.”

Barich said he expects former Giant Zac Langdon to miss round one after the ugly head collision with Dockers captain Nat Fyfe.

“Then there was this head clash and this is what I’m talking about (that) they go way too hard,” he said.

VideoAFL: Eagles small forward Zac Langdon was left feeling dazed after he was involved in an ugly head clash with Fremantle superstar Nat Fyfe.

“Fyfey charges in and the only other fella on the opposition who came from GWS, so he probably didn’t know just how hard Fyfey goes, he put his head over the ball and there was a big bang, the back of Fyfey’s head went into the front of Zac Langdon’s forehead and he went off on a stretcher.

“What they have now is a 12-day rule where you have to be out for 12 days because of the concern of concussion and future problems.

“So he will just make round one but I doubt if he’ll play, we’ll just see how he pulls up in the next couple of days.”

All-Australian defender Brad Sheppard also required stitches after a collision with Bailey Banfield, which saw Banfield leave the field after hurting his leg.

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