Damning footage exposes ‘lazy’ West Coast pretenders after rival’s sledge

Footy pundits have highlighted damning footage of “lazy” AFL superstars that prove why West Coast is no chance of winning the comp.

Nic Naitanui came under fire.

Was Reilly O’Brien right after all?

The Adelaide ruckman made headlines last year when he accidentally published pre-game notes to social media — all because of a dodgy phone — before a clash against West Coast, where he made special mention of a “lazy and unfit” Nic Naitanui.

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O’Brien and Naitanui both laughed the incident off and after the Eagles beat the Crows, Naitanui handed his rival ruckman a brand new phone to show there were no hard feelings.

But O’Brien may have been onto something because Naitanui has come under fire as footy analysts pinpointed worrying examples of West Coast’s laziness in a diabolical loss to Geelong on the weekend.

The Cats thrashed the Eagles 21.10 (136) to 5.9 (39), handing the Perth team its heaviest defeat since 2009 and its biggest loss under coach Adam Simpson.

Simpson accused his side of being “weak” and waving the white flag in a performance he described as “embarrassing” in the post-match press conference, and questions are being asked whether the Eagles have to give up their claim of being premiership contenders.

Brisbane legend Jonathan Brown highlighted specific examples involving Naitanui and veteran Andrew Gaff to explain where the Eagles didn’t work hard enough.

Late in the first quarter, Geelong won a free kick after a ball-up in the centre of the ground. Naitanui looked around to find his opposite number Rhys Stanley, who was running downfield into forward 50. Naitanui started tracking back with Stanley, but stopped after about 40m and stayed on his defensive side of the centre square.

As play continued, a piercing kick found Stanley all on his own, who marked 45m out from goal.

Nic Naitanui came under fire.

“This was when they were going well. Geelong wins the free kick, Rhys Stanley (runs), Nic Nat has a look at him and then he goes, you know what, I think I’ve gone far enough,” Brown told Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday night.

“That’s lazy from a leader, because look who ends up with the football (Stanley). I don’t know what Nic Nat’s doing — it’s his role there to be guarding the centre square.”

Melbourne legend Garry Lyon was just as critical.

“That is the moment where you looked at it and went, this is getting too hard for them,” Lyon said of the Eagles.

“It got too hard for Nic. You’re spot on. He started to do the hard thing, put your head down and push hard defensively, and it all got too hard.”

Brown then criticised Gaff for failing to complete a tackle on Cats backman Lachie Henderson coming out of defensive 50, which allowed the home team to move the ball easily up the ground.

“And guess what? Two or three minutes later? Andrew Gaff, another leader, look what happens. This is just a tackle that has to be made 100 times out of 100 — needs to be crunched,” Brown said.

“Lachie Henderson just rolls around like a wet paper bag, straight out of there and then goes forward.”

Another incident in the second quarter drew Brown’s ire. Four West Coast players went to spoil a kick inside 50 to just one Geelong player, but failed to win possession and opened the door for the Cats to slot another easy goal.

“Look at this contest. Do you reckon they’d be happy with that? Four versus one? Then it just goes forward (easily),” Brown added.

Amazingly, things worked out better for Geelong from this situation.

West Coast was without a stack of key players, including Luke Shuey, Josh Kennedy and Shannon Hurn, and lost Jeremy McGovern after quarter time to a groin injury.

Simpson wasn’t using that as an excuse for the result though, and Brown said Saturday’s defeat exposed a major issue he believes rules them out from contending for a premiership.

“Absolutely not,” he said when asked if the Eagles could win the grand final this year. “There’s a huge leadership void at the West Coast Eagles.

“Luke Shuey, their captain, and their former captain Shannon Hurn. When those guys aren’t out there, there’s a huge gap in leadership. Their back half work was horrible.

“They had no direction back there. So no, they cannot win the premiership with that lack of leadership out there, especially if Hurn and Shuey aren’t there.”