In the lifespan of a football club, a handful of decisions will shape the fabric of the place, dictating the next decade or more.

In the case of West Coast, there’s the hiring of Mick Malthouse as coach, the drafting of Chris Judd, making a 22-year-old John Worsfold captain, and promoting Trevor Nisbett from footy manager to CEO.

Get those things wrong and it impacts premierships, off-field prosperity and culture.

The hiring of Andrew McQualter might not be on that list just yet — but this sure feels like a crucial moment in their 38-year existence.

Rarely has this club been more vulnerable.

They are coming of their bleakest on-field period — 10 wins in 62 games — a foreign feeling of failure and fatigue.

The changes have been swift and significant so far — and more will come — but the hiring of the club’s new coach, who is just the seventh in their history, is at the top of the list titled: “things you absolutely can’t screw up right now”. No pressure.

Did they get it right? We won’t know for a while, but the early signs are good.

What we saw in McQualter this week was a guy that didn’t seem even slightly overwhelmed.

He walked into a massive facility, on little sleep, met hundreds of people, stared down a dozen cameras in a room filled with players, staff and board members and didn’t blink.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they interact with their children. Watching McQualter on Monday with his daughters there was an ease, a warmth.

They were drawn to him as kids are with invested parents. You get out what you put in. Bonds don’t just happen. You could see it in seconds with McQualter.

It’s not a skill set, something you can teach. It’s instinctual, and it bodes well for the Eagles young list.

He’ll need that trait for Harley Reid, Elijah Hewett and Reuben Ginbey. For the draft picks yet to arrive. That ease of connection, approachability.

There’s another side to him.

Speaking to a former Saints teammate of McQualter’s earlier this week, I was told “he won’t put up with any sh**”. Good. If he can get the mix right, the nurturer, the educator, the disciplinarian, this will work.

McQualter has made a habit of operating as an underdog.

He hails from Traralgon in country Victoria and, somewhat poetically, is not even the best player to come out of the town. Or the second. Or the third. Michael Voss, Bernie Quinlan and Brendon Goddard account for those.

A top 20 pick in 2004, McQualter played 89 games for the Saints, another five for the Suns. His best footy came as a tagger in Ross Lyon’s “almost” St Kilda sides.

He was delisted three times and never polled a Brownlow vote. He was 26 when he played his last AFL game. That’s not a career up in lights, but it’s one that helps you understand every player on a list.

The guys toiling in the reserves, the guys on one-year contracts, the role players, the long shots and the high picks under pressure to perform.

For some AFL players, the playing part is the peak — for others, it’s just the apprenticeship.

Mick Malthouse, Alastair Clarkson, Ross Lyon, Craig McRae and Chris Scott have all dwarfed their playing days with their coaching achievements.

None of those players were All-Australians. They combined for 55 Brownlow votes. Yet they’ve coached 10 premierships and been to 19 Grand Finals between them.

Rarely do the elite superstars of the game become our best coaches. Leigh Matthews the exception, but in most cases the game’s best mentors come from role players, scrappers, dour defenders — the players who work hard, lead by example and fight for every inch, a career built on small steps of persistence, rather than big leaps of natural talent.

McQualter’s story has one significant chapter about to be written. The coach of a juggernaut football club. This may be his true calling. He certainly fits the mould.

They dubbed him Mini at school, a nickname derived from the fact he followed his older brother around like a shadow.

This is a guy who looks at someone, decides they’re worth emulating and then absorbs. His older brother, Lyon, Damien Hardwick.

On Monday, he talked about playing fast, players being ready to run, chaos ball and about connection. That’s kind of his thing. People, family and connection.

In his time at Richmond as an assistant, he started something called “Dates with Mates”. Three players each week needed to invite at least two people over for a home-cooked meal. Other players, coaches, staff or whoever.

Those players would then nominate three players for next week and it rolled on. Suddenly you had a WhatsApp group where the entire Richmond football club was posting dinner selfies, creating new friendships and connecting.

The Eagles have a new coach. They have a very long road ahead.

But from what we’ve seen so far, they’ll walk that road together.