West Coast Eagles young gun Elijah Hewett gets through WAFL practice match unscathed on return from quad issue

West Coast young gun Elijah Hewett has got through a WAFL practice match unscathed and produced an impressive performance to press his claims for an AFL call-up. Despite the Eagles — who named only 23 players for the game to Peel Thunder’s 28 — being on the wrong end of an 93-point smashing, Hewett found plenty of the football and showed glimpses of his dynamic best. His best passage of play for the day came moments before half-time, when he won a centre clearance and gathered a number of hard balls throughout the ensuing chain. He had one unfortunate moment in the first term when he copped an errant kick directly to the face, but he immediately bounced back up and showed no signs of being affected. Hewett spent much of the third and fourth terms playing as a forward and managed to slot his side’s final goal of the day, receiving a handball on the run and snapping truly on his non-preferred left foot from near the paint of the 50-metre arc. He then finished the game on the bench, but did not appear to have any injury concern. West Coast’s WAFL captain Callum Jamieson said he had been impressed with what he had seen from the dynamic midfielder. “Hewy was good, it was good to get him back on the track,” Jamieson said. “We love getting experienced AFL boys back, Hewy’s one of those. He’s had a rough run with injury lately, but he’s a super-talented player. “When he’s in our side, we’re definitely a better side, so hopefully he stays around for a bit longer, but I’m sure a few more games like that and he’ll be back in the ones.” The 21-year-old, who played only 34 games across his first three seasons at the top level as he battled a succession of injuries, spent the early part of the off-season working to overcome a calf niggle. He then suffered a quad injury which sidelined him for the first two fixtures of the senior side’s season before being eased back into competitive action in the reserves. Elsewhere among the other 13 AFL-listed Eagles to feature on the day, ruckman Bailey Williams continued an impressive pre-season by edging out Mason Cox in the ruck battle before the high-profile recruit made an early exit ahead of the second half. Midfielder Clay Hall was left down behind play after copping a big hit early in the third term, but was able to compose himself with the aid of a brief spell on the bench and play the rest of the game. Defenders Tom Cole and Ryan Maric — who were both omitted from the senior side after a heavy loss to Gold Coast — were under siege for much of the day, which left them without many chances to show off their skills.