‘Torn’ premiership teammate Will Schofield says West Coast players would be ‘disappointed’ in Jack Darling

Will Schofield says he would be “incredibly disappointed” in premiership teammate Jack Darling’s refusal to get vaccinated if they were still playing together, and predicted current West Coast players to feel the same, but respected his decision as a friend. The key forward became the first WA player to miss the AFL-imposed January 21 deadline to receive a first vaccine dose, and isn’t allowed back at Mineral Resources Park until he changes his mind. The Eagles released a statement shortly after training started at their Lathlain headquarters on Friday to confirm that Darling was against getting vaccinated before he broke his silence on Instagram saying the absence was due to a work-related injury. Schofield, who played with Darling for a decade including the 2018 grand final win over Collingwood, admits he’s “torn” about the situation. “I’m not sure how it will sit with everyone but I’m a little bit torn, I’ll start with that,” Schofield told 6PR’s Sportsday WA. “I’ve got the players’ perspective. Jack Darling is a friend of mine, an ex-teammate, a premiership teammate of mine and if I was still playing, I would be incredibly disappointed with Jack. “As a player, I played to win and I wanted everybody working their hardest in order to win a premiership. “Jack Darling is one of West Coast’s best players and as it stands, he won’t be playing for West Coast next season if he doesn’t decide to get vaccinated, if that is in fact what is going on here. “As a player, if I was still a teammate, I’d be incredibly disappointed and I’d be surprised if his West Coast teammates weren’t disappointed with him. “Purely, away from COVID, away from vaccination and away from anything you think, he helps the team win and he’s not going to be able to do that so there will be some disappointed teammates of his. “I’ll flip to me being torn as a person and as a friend of Jack Darling and really just as an observer, I’ve got to be honest, I respect peoples’ rights to make their own decisions in life. “Now I understand there are laws, there are mandates that are currently being put on people, there are decisions you’ve got to make that are often influenced by other people. “But from a holistic view, I think you should be able to make your own decisions and that is what Jack has appeared to have done and I can’t say anything other than I respect it because that’s his decision, it’s not my life. “He’s clearly going to have a lot of things that are going to affect him off the back of that but if you’re asking for my view on it, I’ve got to respect it.” Schofield said it left West Coast in an “incredibly difficult” position about what to do with Darling, a 236-game, 450-goal forward who is still contracted until the end of 2025. Under AFL rules, the club have several options including paying him just 25 per cent of the AFL’s minimum wage which is about $23,000. They can also come to a financial settlement like Carlton did with unvaccinated defender Liam Jones when he retired in November, or could wait until May 18 and utilise that AFL deadline to terminate his contract. “They’re in an incredibly difficult position right now because one of their best players, one of their most highly-paid players, has effectively just said that he’s not going to come to training, either what West Coast are saying, which is that he hasn’t been vaccinated, or what Jack has said which is that he’s dealing with a work-related injury,” Schofield said.

‘Torn’ premiership teammate Will Schofield says West Coast players would be ‘disappointed’ in Jack Darling

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