The Ashes: West Coast Eagles assistant Mitch Duncan embedded into Australian camp one day out from first Test

New West Coast assistant coach Mitch Duncan has been welcomed into the inner sanctum of the Australian camp, just a day out from the opening Test of The Ashes.

Wearing Cricket Australia-issued gear, the recently-retired Duncan observed the Australians going through their final preparations at the Optus Stadium nets ahead of the start of the series at the venue on Friday.

Duncan was drafted out of East Fremantle by Geelong in 2009 and went on to play 305 games for the Cats, winning premierships in 2011 and 2022.

After retiring this year, he returned to WA and signed on with the Eagles as their backline coach.

Australian coach Andrew McDonald is a board member at Duncan’s former club Geelong.

The Australian cricket team has welcomed coaches from the football fraternity in the past, with Stuart Dew embedded into the camp in the 2023 Ashes in England only days after being sacked by Gold Coast.

Last month, Duncan told The West Australian he had built a relationship with West Coast coach Andrew McQualter during the 2020 COVID-19 hub in Queensland.

“Our daughters were the same age at the same time, so we spent plenty of time at the park together,” Duncan said.

“We’ve just been in contact ever since so when the opportunity started to arise towards the end of the season, I weighed up a few things and thought it would be a great opportunity to start my coaching career over here.

“I’m really interested to see and hear Mini’s philosophy of what he’s learned over his journey and hopefully I can follow in a similar path over time.

“I’ve been lucky to be at a successful club over 16 years so coming into a club that has won one game is going to be a bit foreign to me, but I’m really looking forward to learning and seeing how everything stacks up from there.”