AFL world responds to historic West Coast Eagles bloodbath loss to Sydney

The AFL world has sharpened the knives after West Coast’s bloodbath loss, and it does not make for pretty reading at all.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 24: Eagles captain Luke Shuey walks from the field after defeat during the round 15 AFL match between Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles at Sydney Cricket Ground, on June 24, 2023, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

The West Coast Eagles are historically bad.

Their 31.19 (205) to 5.4 (34) loss last night to Sydney was the club’s worst ever and their highest score ever conceded, as the Swans ran amok to register their equal-highest winning margin in just the third time an AFL club has reached the double ton since 2011.

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Now, the AFL world has had the chance to process the extraordinary result as the traditional powerhouse club pick up the pieces from a loss labelled as “embarrassing” by head coach Adam Simpson after the game.

Adam Simpson (centre) is in serious hot water. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

Commentators and fans alike have said it’s difficult to see Simpson continue in the role, despite the fact that Simpson has very few listed players to make changes with, courtesy of the Eagles’ litany of injuries.

“It’s almost irrelevant whether an immediate coaching change makes West Coast better,” said ABC’s Brett Sprigg.

“No coach gets through a loss like that.

“This wouldn’t be serving Adam Simpson either. Take absolutely nothing away from his legacy at that club, it’s surely time to move on.”

Former Carlton captain Mark Maclure said “coaches don‘t survive this.”

“I don’t want to be rude, but they just don’t,” Maclure said.

West Coast’s defeat was the largest in their proud history. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

SEN 1116’s Nic Negrepontis asked whether the AFL needed to intervene, such was the decline of a proud club.

“Does the AFL need to step in here?” Negrepontis asked.

“This is beyond embarrassing for the competition.

“By step in, I mean the AFL should be forcing people within the Eagles to stand down for allowing the team to get to this point. It’s beyond negligent.”

SEN 1170’s Charles Goodsir called the experience of watching West Coast “boring and not a great advertisement for footy.”

Triple M’s Rudi Edsall called it “hideous stuff”.

The Sunday Times, Perth’s major Sunday newspaper, ran an all-black back page with Simpson’s head bowed, labelled his job “in jeopardy”.

Broadcaster Corbin Middlemas on ABC’s Offsiders called the state of the club and their board dynamics “fascinating”, and noted the executive experience and knowledge on the board, which includes Clayton Utz partner Paul Fitzpatrick, former West Australian Treasurer Ben Wyatt, and former Australian men’s cricket coach Justin Langer.

“It’ll be a pretty dark day today for everyone in WA,” Middlemas said.

“The board are going to have a difficult decision to make.

“The interesting aspect about West Coast compared to other clubs, if this was any other club in the competition, I think we would all expect that a loss of that magnitude means that the coach goes.

“But the Eagles don’t feel the same kind of pressures that other clubs do.

“They have a whole heap of money in the bank – they have ten times the amount of money the AFL had when Covid hit, just in reserves, sitting there – so there is no financial pressure, people are queuing up to be a sponsor of this club.

“People are queuing up to be members. They pay 60 to 70 bucks a year, a few thousand of them, to wait in the wings to get a seat to be a West Coast Eagles member.

“If you want to give up your seat, fine, somebody else will take it – so there’s not the same pressures.

“I think that whole attitude contributes to that position that they’re in now, when there isn’t that edge to it, and they can tolerate the type of defeats they are – we can just see the snowball effect and it gets worse and worse and worse.”

The back page of The Sunday Times for June 25, 2023, the morning after West Coast’s historic loss.

Luke Shuey leads a team with premiership experience, despite a solitary win in 2023. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

Kane Cornes on The Round So Far was scathing in his assessment.

“It’s alarming. I’ve said from about Round 3 this year that you can’t survive – and the coach won’t survive – a record like this and performances like this will put a full stop to that,” Cornes said.

“Whether that’s this week or in the coming weeks, unfortunately for Adam Simpson, his time is coming to an end.

“They need to change things up because what we are seeing on the field, regardless of who is available – and they’ll keep referencing that and he did that again – the effort levels, they are not trying. And it’s their senior players who aren’t trying.

“It’s not giving a lot to your fans who are hurting, is it?

“We have sympathy for Adam Simpson to have to sit through that again, but the message is not getting through and there isn’t a response from his coaching through to the players.

“They tell us that it’s going to get worse. So if you’re telling us it’s going to get worse and you’re going to get younger and you’re going to go to the draft, that’s five years. So Adam Simpson is not going to be there in five years for results worse than this.

“So the West Coast Eagles – and he (Simpson) won’t be the only one – will have to make a dramatic change – and I suspect that happens this week.”

West Coast’s list management decisions are under particular management decisions have come under particular scrutiny on Sunday morning with the release of the AFL Rich List revealed by News Corp, showing that West Coast players are some of the highest paid players in the competition.

Jeremy McGovern sits third in the league on $1-1.1 million a year, alongside Tim Kelly in fourth.

Andrew Gaff ($750-850k) is in 34th, while Elliot Yeo (49th)m Jack Darling (50th), Tom Barrass (53rd) and Oscar Allen (54th) all make the top 100 list as well.

Originally published as AFL world responds to historic West Coast Eagles bloodbath loss to Sydney