Sharrod Wellingham Biography

Delisted West Coast veteran Sharrod Wellingham will continue his playing career with East Perth in the WAFL next season.

"His pace, elite foot skills and strong attack at the contest and ball will be a genuine asset to us through the midfield," East Perth football operations manager Mark Winnett said.

"Sharrod’s experience and on-field leadership will be invaluable for our younger players in and around the football club and we look forward to him having a strong impact on field next season and beyond."

After being delisted by the Eagles, Sharrod Wellingham's manager, Andrew McDougall, says his client is still in excellent condition physically.

"We think he can play for another three years at AFL level," McDougall said.

"From our point of view, Colin Young and myself are trying to approach AFL clubs and, hopefully, in the next week or two, something might open up.

"With his skills and ability, we think it may be a positive outcome."

West Coast delist Sharrod Wellingham, Josh Hill, Tom Lamb and rookies Tom Gorter and Jordan Snadden.

West Coast has now made 12 list changes as the club embarks on an aggressive turnover of what was the AFL's oldest playing group this year.

Out-of-contract Sharrod Wellingham's AFL future won’t be decided until after the NAB AFL Trade Period.

"Sharrod's out of contract, so we'll go into this Trade Period and see what happens," Eagles list manager Brady Rawlings said.

"We'll reassess at the end of the Trade Period whether we look to go with Sharrod for one more year or not."

Sharrod Wellingham will miss at least the first three matches of the season as he tries to recover from a knee knock he suffered in an intraclub match.

He missed all of the NAB Challenge and has been unable to train over the past couple of weeks.

West Coast trio Sharrod Wellingham, Josh Hill and Fraser McInnes have all re-signed as the Eagles look to sustain the success they have had in 2015.

Eagles football manager Craig Vozzo told the club's website that the trio were important part of the club's plans over the coming seasons.

"We believe we have the nucleus of an exciting list and Sharrod, Josh and Fraser are all important players on that list," Vozzo said.

"They have each played an important role in what we have so far achieved this year and they will be integral to the long-term plan of sustained success, so it's exciting to have them extend their commitment to the club."

Sharrod Wellingham has been rejuvenated by a move to defence this season.

"He's brought another dimension with our rebound and how we defend," West Coast coach Adam Simpson said.

"He's working well with our backs. He's playing his role, it's a different role but he's adapted to it.

"He is a player that can play in various positions. At the moment he's complying to what we want to do off the ball and he's contributing with the ball. So we've been happy with his form."

West Coast midfield coach Brady Rawlings says Sharrod Wellingham is set to show what he's capable of in 2015.

"This pre-season we've been able to train him a bit more as a midfielder since the Christmas break and he's coming along well," Rawlings said.

"We all know his talent. He's quite fit at the moment. He's strong, he's clean inside the contest and uses the ball really well.

"He's got a good attitude, and we're all looking forward to him playing games and showing us what he can do."

Sharrod Wellingham's forgettable season is all but over after West Coast confirmed the midfielder could miss four to six weeks with a knee injury.

Wellingham tore the lateral meniscus in his right knee while playing for East Perth in the WAFL on Saturday. He was helped from the ground during the third term of the Royals 21-point win over West Perth and did not return.

West Coast coach Adam Simpson says he has not written off Sharrod Wellingham despite the 26-year old having been dropped from the side on three separate occasions due to poor form.

"We think there is some tremendous upside from Sharrod and we're not writing him off by any stretch," Simpson said.

"It's been, hopefully, good learning here for Sharrod. He's really excited about what he can do and what he's learning off the field and on game day as well."

Sharrod Wellingham will become West Coast's primary tagger in the absence of Scott Selwood who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with injury.

"He needs to be consistent with his performance, no doubt," Eagles coach Adam Simpson said.

"He's been around a while. He's a premiership player and he's probably looking around our club and realising he's one of the older ones now.

"He performed well on the weekend, probably his best game for the club, but we're expecting that consistency most weeks."

Sharrod Wellingham has had to wait until round 21 to bring up game 100 due to two ankle injuries that have kept him out of 12 matches this season.

"This year has been a bit frustrating but I have been a bit lucky up until this year," Wellingham said.

"So I have to count my lucky stars on that one, I just have to approach it as another game really.

"I am glad I have reached it [the milestone] finally and hopefully we can get a big win."

Sharrod Wellingham has been ruled out for five to seven weeks with a left ankle injury.

In just his third match for his new club, Wellingham was subbed out in the second term against North Melbourne on Friday night and has been diagnosed with a low-grade syndesmosis injury.

The syndesmosis is the membrane surrounding the ankle joint. It is understood that Wellingham's latest injury is very similar - but less severe - than the one he suffered to his right ankle in the pre-season and is unlikely to require surgery.

After being on crutches for two weeks and in a moon boot for a month, Sharrod Wellingham says he wants to make an immediate impact for West Coast when he makes his debut against the Bulldogs.

"I haven't been sitting around eating chips on the couch for the last 11 weeks. It's been a huge workload that I've been doing," Wellingham said.

"I got out of the boot about six weeks ago and was pretty much running that week. I've got a lot of confidence in the amount of work that I've put in over the summer and then in the last six weeks that I'll be able to run out the game."

West Coast great great Dean Kemp, who serves as a mentor to several Eagles midfielders, believes recruit Sharrod Wellingham could be the key to the club turning around their 1-4 start to the season.

"I think he's going to play a really important role for us once he gets into the team, hopefully this week," Kemp said.

"I reckon he's really going to add a bit of inside grunt to us and a bit of protection that some of those younger guys in there are needing at the moment."

Sharod Wellingham is taking longer than expected in his recovery from an ankle injury and will miss the first two rounds of the season.

"The surgeon saw him on the weekend at our game and elected to leave the boot on for a longer period. So straight away that's making it pretty tough," West Coast coach John Worsfold said.

"It means he won't have to put any weight on that leg for about three weeks, so you'd expect it would take another three weeks or so to really get him up and going back ready to play."

Sharrod Wellingham could miss the start of the AFL season after suffering a freak ankle injury in a trampoline accident.

Eagles coach John Worsfold says recruit Sharrod Wellingham could share a run-with role with Scott Selwood in 2013.

"It gives us a bit more flexibility for sure," Worsfold told 6PR.

"Scott Selwood was still having some tight run-with roles last year. We can free him up at times and use Sharrod in that role.

"[We can] still use Scotty, because he's shown he can play that role and win the footy himself …. but we certainly think we can use Sharrod and swap him up."

Collingwood has accepted West Coast's first-round pick for midfielder Sharrod Wellingham.

"His record at AFL level has been one of a handy player who hasn't scaled heights in terms of club best and fairests and who has played extremely good individual games and patches of seasons," Magpies football manager Geoff Walsh said.

"But in terms of his consistency [he] probably hasn't got there yet. Now the $64,000 question is: 'Will he get there ever?'

"I don't know and that's the thing I suppose where we say [pick] 17 will either look very good or very poor in one, two or three years' time."

West Coast, however, are confident that Wellingham will be more than a handy contributer for their team.

"We're pretty comfortable with the deal, we identified he'd be a player that would improve us," West Coast list manager Craig Vozzo told SEN radio.

"In this business sometimes acting decisively gets the job done."

Dayne Beams has thrown his support behind Sharrod Wellingham, saying he understands his desire to go home.

"I think Sharrod's made it public that he's going and that's sad, he's a great bloke and he's someone you want around your footy club," Beams said.

"At the end of the day, footy's a business and his family is back in WA and you certainly can't hold it against him for wanting to go home and be with his family."

Midfielder Sharrod Wellingham looks set to leave Collingwood, after nominating West Coast as his club of choice.

"The dealings I have had with West Coast have been really impressive and I will now go on a break overseas and wait for the two clubs to reach a deal on the terms of my move back home," Wellingham said.

"It will be exciting to get back to Perth and to play in front of my family every week. That was a very strong influence on my decision to leave and I look forward to playing with the Eagles."

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says West Coast will have to offer 'substantial' compensation to snare Sharrod Wellingham.

"He's saying that he might want to go there and now the West Coast Eagles will need to come up with something fairly substantial to get the deal done," McGuire said on Triple M radio.

"Hopefully things work out, but it'll be everyone coming to their senses and offering decent compensation."

Sharod Wellingham's manager confirms that the West Australian midfielder is weighing up a choice between Collingwood, West Coast or Fremantle.

Melbourne confirms its interest in Chris Dawes and Josh Caddy and is also keen to talk to Sharrod Wellingham.

Geoff Walsh says the Magpies are waiting to hear back from out-of-contract midfielder Sharrod Wellingham.

"We've got an offer in front of Sharrod and his management," Magpies football director Geoff Walsh said.

"That offer has been in front of him for a number of weeks.

"I know Sharrod is returning home to Western Australia in the next few days for a bit of a break, and his management is based in Western Australia, so I'm sure they'll catch up and we'll get some sort of response."

Collingwood's Sharrod Wellingham says there is no substance to reports linking him with Melbourne and that he will focus on contract negotiations once the season is over.

"I've said that I don't really want to worry about it until later on, especially with the finals. I've got better things to worry about," Wellingham said.

"I'm really trying to focus on finals and the bigger picture as far as the season goes."

Midfielder Sharrod Wellingham has signed a new deal with Collingwood, with the length of the deal undisclosed.

Sharrod Wellingham accepts a three-week ban for his hit that left Kade Simpson with a broken jaw.

Carlton confirms midfielder Kade Simpson will spend time on the sidelines with a fractured jaw after clashing with Magpie Sharrod Wellingham.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley concedes that Wellingham will likely serve time for it.

"It was a clumsy contest," Buckley said.

"I think, initially, I've got no doubt that he's intent would have been to go and mark the footy and then I think he made a split-second decision that 'I'm not going to be able to mark this but I need to be able to spoil it'."

Collingwood midfielder Sharrod Wellingham says he was immediately affected following his sickening bump on Carlton's Kade Simpson.

"He didn't look to be in a great way when he was on the ground so I wanted to make sure that he was feeling all right and let him know it wasn't intentional to hurt him that much," Wellingham said.

"I think for a couple of minutes it certainly did play on my mind. Carlton were really taking the game away from us at that stage and the (Carlton) boys were letting me know it was a bad thing to have done."

Sharrod Wellingham is proving to be one of the AFL's most versatile players, a trait Magpie recruiter Derek Hine noticed early on.

"He's playing forward for us as the moment and he's demonstrated he can go through the middle of the ground and have really high numbers," Hine said.

"He's got good straight line speed but his lateral movement is really, really good."

Sharrod Wellingham says Will Minson should have known better than to sledge Danyle Pearce's mother after being forced to apologise to Kane Cornes in 2008.

There's going to be some sledging and there's going to be some stuff said that maybe you don't really want to say," Wellingham said.

"It can become quite blurry those lines, but he's (Minson) experienced it in the past and I think that he probably should have learned his lesson. It's just got to come down to respect between players."

Midfielder Sharrod Wellingham says he is keen to stay at the Magpies as his manager begins talks.

"My manager has started negotiations but we'll just wait and see how that pans out over the next couple of weeks," Wellingham said.

"I'm certainly not [looking for a change]. I'm very happy at the moment."

Collingwood has suspended Sharrod Wellingham for missing a rehab session and drinking alcohol while injured.

"This hopefully sends a message to Sharrod that his decision making, which led to this situation, was entirely inconsistent with the preparation standards expected of a Collingwood footballer," Collingwood director of football Geoff Walsh said.

"As Sharrod would know, it's a clear breach of one of our cardinal rules here that no one is to be drinking any alcohol while they're out injured."

Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell says the club was justified in sanctioning midfielder Sharrod Wellingham.

"He was out drinking when he shouldn't have been and missed a recovery session the next morning," Maxwell said.

"For us, the situation we're in, we need everyone focused and making sure they're doing the right thing. We had to make sure we took a stance and we feel it's fair and he feels it's fair.

Late inclusion Sharrod Wellingham was a strong performer with 23 disposals for the Magpies against North after spending five weeks in the VFL to start 2009.

"It was frustrating. They just wanted me to show a bit of consistency in the twos before they’d bring me back in," Wellingham said.

"I knew I'd have to keep working. There are a few areas like my kicking that lets me down. As soon as I got that back up I knew I'd be straight back in."

The Magpies end their sponsorship with the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) after second-year rookie Sharrod Wellingham is charged with drink-driving.

Collingwood is obliged to terminate their contract with TAC after an agreement reached two years ago to do so should any of their players be implicated in a road-related transgression.

The agreement was reached after Chad Morrison was found drink-driving in 2006, subsequently losing his license.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire was quick to warn of a possible media beat up following the incident, insisting that alcohol-abuse is not a problem at his club.

"There's a far bigger alcohol problem with journalists than there is with footballers. I know because I'm involved in both sides of the ledger there," McGuire said. "So let's not beat this up into a big story that's not there, OK."

Wellingham is fined $5000 by the club and promises to give up drinking in order to achieve his AFL goals.

"I've let my team down, the club down. It's a massive cost to the club as far as losing the sponsorship, it's just a feeling of regret. There's nothing I can do about it. I just want to let everyone know I'm sorry," Wellingham said.