Adam Simpson sick of questions over Eagles’ unhappiest hunting ground MCG
WEST Coast hasn’t beaten Collingwood at the MCG since 1995 and they haven’t won too many others at the home of footy since, so you can understand why it’s a touchy subject for coach Adam Simpson.
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ADAM Simpson hates talking about West Coast’s record at the MCG.
And people just keep asking him about it.
Take Collingwood, who the Eagles play today in a 2v3 heavyweight bout. The Eagles haven’t beaten the Magpies at the Grand Final ground since 1995.
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“We’ll get those questions every time until probably we win a flag, I reckon, about playing at the MCG,” the West Coast coach said this week.
“I understand the criticism that pops up every now and then,” Simpson said.
We haven’t beaten Collingwood for a long period of time — I think someone said that about Hawthorn earlier in the year as well — but that’s just reality. We don’t really think about the history.”
In trying to figure out what the problem is for the Eagles at the MCG, we looked at their most recent history, from 2015 to 2018.
It’s a period where West Coast has won three of eight games, which includes losing to Hawthorn in the 2015 Grand Final.
There are some basic things the Eagles haven’t done as well at the MCG as they have at home in that time.
Of course home has changed, the old Subiaco was 15m longer than the MCG and 20m skinnier; the new Perth Stadium is much closer to the MCG dimensions.
Shot on goal accuracy is 51 per cent here compared to 62 per cent in Perth.
Returning forward stars Josh Kennedy, Jack Darling and Marc LeCras are much more comfortable in front of the big sticks at home.
Kennedy is a 2.5 goal less productive forward at the MCG — four goals on average in WA versus 1.5 at the ‘G — while Darling’s differential is 0.2 and LeCras’ -0.6.
It’s interesting to look across town to Docklands — Kennedy and his team are much more at home there. Kennedy averages 3.8 goals at Etihad Stadium and his team’s record there since 2015 is 6-5.
Back to the ‘G, the Eagles just don’t get enough of the ball, with a disposal difference per game of -64 (it’s +8 at home).
No surprise the free kick difference per game is -4 at the MCG compared to +5 in Perth.
These are the headline numbers.
Our Champion Data experts delved deeper in an attempt to understand the Eagles’ struggles.
The boffins looked at ball movement, chain conversion and score percentage from stoppages and intercepts across the four years from 2015 at home and at the MCG.
They say these numbers would show if there was a difference in game style at the MCG, but you know what? Nothing. It’s pretty similar.
After the Eagles’ far from convincing victory against Carlton in Round 5 Simpson called the win a grind. In reality that was kind — the Eagles were terrible.
The Carlton win didn’t answer any questions about the Eagles’ ability to play at the home of Australian rules football.
Today might be different. A win against top opposition might even mean the questions stop, for a while anyway. If the Eagles do make the Grand Final, it’ll be back top of the agenda.
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Originally published as Adam Simpson sick of questions over Eagles’ unhappiest hunting ground MCG
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