AT A time when West Coast needs them most, players earmarked to drive the Eagles deep into this decade are now mostly just pictures in their year books.

Close scrutiny of recent draft years reveals the Eagles have been ravaged by the vagaries of recruiting.

After painful ponderings over which youngster is going to get the nod with that valuable high draft pick at the end of each season, all clubs sit and wait for their new chosen son to develop.

They expect he will give them his best football for the few years after his fifth or sixth season.

So it will be tonight when superstar Carlton recruit Chris Judd, in his seventh AFL season, comes back to Perth to battle West Coast for the first time, with the Blues hoping he will show his old team exactly what it lost when he turned his back on the Eagles last year.

Judd was the Eagles' top pick at No. 3 in the so-called super draft of 2001. Ashley Sampi was their next at No. 6. Both are gone now and so are several others.

As they did in 1998 with No. 12 pick Brandon Hill, who failed to play an AFL game, West Coast put boundless faith in its highest draft picks of 2002 and 2003 — Andrew McDougall and Paul Johnson.

McDougall is fighting for senior selection with the Western Bulldogs after being traded at the end of 2006 and Johnson is doing the same at Melbourne after copping a similar fate at the end of 2004. In fact, aside from captain and All-Australian full-back Darren Glass, all of West Coast's highest draft picks from 1996 — when they snared ruckman Michael Gardiner with selection No. 1 — to 2002 have gone.

West Coast will argue that its clever trading to secure Daniel Chick from Hawthorn in 2002 and Tyson Stenglein from Adelaide two years later helped secure the 2006 AFL premiership.

But football fate turns quickly. Though the work of West Coast's recruiting department has put the club in a position to rebuild, the Eagles will be forced in the short term to take more hits.

Midfielder Sam Butler, a high pick at No. 20 in 2003, has been prevented by injury from playing a game since the 2006 grand final, while the handy father-son selection of 2004, Mitch Morton, is at Richmond.

More frustration comes from the goalkicking form in the WAFL of Brad Smith, who did not make his AFL debut in his two seasons (2005 and 2006) on West Coast's senior list because of consecutive knee reconstructions. Smith's sensational comeback feats for Subiaco will have made the Eagles even grumpier with the AFL, which dashed their bid to grant him a special place on the rookie list because of his extraordinary circumstances.

West Coast's top pick of 2005, Shannon Hurn, is out for up to six weeks with a fractured fibula and 2006's highest draftee, Mitch Brown, is sitting out the season after a knee reconstruction. Mark LeCras and Matt Priddis remain out through injury and key defender Adam Hunter will be on the sidelines for six weeks after hyper-extending a knee.

West Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett said the draft was a roller-coaster ride and conceded his club was vulnerable after its premiership peak.

"We've probably turned over a few (players), but you really need your first-rounders to play 100 games for you," Nisbett said. "The 2001 draft was probably our best and now is when Juddy and Samps should be playing their best footy for us. But they're gone, even though we got 200 games out of them. It's very disappointing when you lose first-rounders, but that's the nature of it these days. Even a guy like Paul Johnson, who's gone back to Melbourne, we would have expected a better return from him.

"But we've been able to get Josh Kennedy, who was pick five in the draft, and been able to elevate guys we had a crack at from a rookie perspective, who would have gone the next year as first-round picks. You can cover it if you have to trade guys out, but our trend has always been wanting to develop our guys right the way through. You just can't replace class players overnight."

WEST AUSTRALIAN