By Peter Ryan
West Coast chairman Paul Fitzpatrick has written to members backing coach Adam Simpson and urging supporters to stick with the club in the wake of the Eagles’ 171-point humiliation to Sydney.
Fitzpatrick described Saturday’s defeat as “one of the darkest days in the history of the football club” and “unacceptable”, pointing to a lack of performance from senior players.
The Adam Simpson-coached Eagles crashed to the club’s heaviest defeat.Credit: Getty
“The 171-point margin aside, what we produced on the field was not representative of what the West Coast Eagles has stood – and still stands – for,” he said.
“We know our members and fans are hurting and so is everyone inside the football club. We all take a degree of responsibility for where we sit currently and equally we are all committed to fighting our way through this situation.
“It is important to get games into young players and fast track their development. We had nine players under the age of 21 take the field against the Swans and we expect them to be very good AFL players.
“But we need our senior players to set a better example for them. With a couple of exceptions many of the experienced players were well down yesterday.
“Obviously Adam Simpson and his coaching staff have been limited with what they can do with such a long injury list, but regardless we cannot tolerate performances of that nature and we expect a strong response against St Kilda next Sunday.
“We do have faith that Adam can take this team forward and we also believe in the path we need to take to fight our way back.
“It will take time because the long-term strategy revolves around bringing in more high-end young talent through the draft to lay solid foundations for the next era.”
Dual premiership Eagle Guy McKenna said thumping the table in anger was not the answer to West Coast’s woes, despite the fact they conceded 205 points and lost by the fourth-biggest margin in the game’s history.
He said that although the performance was horrendous and greater effort was required, the number of injuries meant Simpson’s hands were tied, and his only option was a back-to-basics approach.
Simpson said post-game there were only two listed players available to play WAFL, meaning he only had 25 players to pick from, with several players not ready for AFL. Nine players had 23 games’ experience or less.
“The only thing he can do is strip it right back,” McKenna said. “There is no point [club CEO] Trevor Nisbett going down to ‘Simmo’ [Simpson] and banging the table because Adam will be entitled to say ‘what else can I do?’
“He is still at the stage with many players were they are being taught to train and prepare consistently well. The next step is to compete consistently and the only certainty with young players is that they will be consistently inconsistent. Injuries also deplete training standards.”
McKenna said he was dismayed watching the match, but he recalled similar matches in his playing (267 games at the Eagles) and coaching career (88 games at Gold Coast) when the players looked like witches hats despite feeling as though they were trying.
He said the Eagles could not put chains of play together, which meant senior players could fall into a trap of trying to fix too many things, thereby affecting their own performance.
“You walk away from Saturday’s game and think who can we assess, well, you can’t assess anyone?” McKenna said. “In the game on Saturday, there is not a lot you get out of that.”
But Collingwood premiership skipper Tony Shaw told 3AW it was time for a fresh approach, with Simpson having now coached 217 games.
“The lack of effort from the senior players was the issue for me,” Shaw told 3AW. “It’s time for a fresh approach.”
McKenna said it was an unfamiliar place for the Eagles to find themselves in, but supporters should ready themselves for more pain as there was no quick fix.
“It’s almost like another step back is needed for two steps forward,” McKenna said. “You need the cattle.”
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