Analysis: West Coast Eagles have a resounding win but is it too little, too late for coach Adam Simpson?

West Coast coach Adam Simpson asked for clarity from his senior players, and he got it in their win over the Bulldogs. But where was this over the past two years, asks MARK DUFFIELD.

The West Coast Eagles put on their best performance in months. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The West Coast Eagles have finally spoken on Adam Simpson’s future.

The statement just came from the players – not the board.

Simpson wanted clarity and he got it from his senior men. Tim Kelly, 32 disposals, eight clearances and 12 score involvements, played the best game he has played in West Coast colours. Jamie Cripps kicked five goals and didn’t miss when it mattered – nailing three in the final term.

And Jeremy McGovern and Elliot Yeo reminded the public what the Eagles have missed all too often in the past two years. McGovern was superb early and late. Yeo had to mark taller players in defence in the first three quarters, then turned the tide midfield in the last before being forced off the ground injured.

The West Coast board is still to make a public call on Simpson. It is an interesting call to make now – especially if they had made one already privately.

Cripps spoke for the players at the end of the game: “He is a great coach and should be our coach going forward,” he said.

Tim Kelly had his best game in West Coast colours. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

The words were as emphatic as the players’ actions in the game. It just begs the questions: Where was this last week? Where has it been for the past two seasons?

The first term had belonged to Kelly. The midfielder had 13 disposals and six score involvements with 226 metres gained for the team in a single term. He set the Eagles on the fly from traffic and the Dogs, half asleep for half the quarter, didn’t cope well.

Oscar Allen, Cripps and Jack Darling had the first three goals of the term before the Dogs had blinked and even the Bulldogs first goal had a huge question mark attached to it with Anthony Scott’s bouncing snap possibly nicking Jamaine Jones’ leg on its way through the goals.

Just what Gillon McLachlan needed in the wake of the disallowed goal fiasco at Adelaide Oval the night before – another goal review controversy the next day.

But the Eagles got the next two after that to open a 26 point lead.

Two-thirds of the way through the term McGovern hurled himself back into the path of Jamarra Ugle-Hagan on the lead. It was extraordinary courage, it prevented a Ugle-Hagan mark and a shot on goal. But it left McGovern in a crumpled heap on the deck, and off the ground for the remainder of the quarter and into the second term. It gave the Dogs a breather and cleared the gun interceptor out of the pathway to goal. The Bulldogs got the final two goals of the first term and they got the opening goal of the second term. Suddenly a runaway start was a retrievable break.

The Bulldogs have bombed their finals chance. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

But even though the Dogs had been able to turn the game back into an arm wrestle, it was still an arm wrestle where the Eagles were applying physical pressure and had scoreboard pressure. The teams kicked two goals each in the second term but the Eagles had the half-time lead and the Bulldogs had still only spasmodically threatened to crack the Eagles open.

And West Coast continued to show they were capable of cracking the Dogs open.

An Yeo kick-in went straight up the middle, Kelly swooped on the loose ball and before the Dogs could blink Ryan Maric had the ball in his hands twenty metres from goal. It was the way the Eagles had wanted to play as Cripps said after – they took the game on and had “a crack”.

Kelly only had the five second term possessions after the first term extravaganza, but he did have another two score involvements. Kelly loves to attack. It seemed the Bulldogs couldn’t find a player who was keen enough to defend him.

Speaking at the half time break Simpson spoke of concern that the Dogs superstars, like Marcus Bontempelli would “put the capes on” and get hold of the Eagles.

Bontempelli was the superhero to emerge in the third term. He had 12 disposals and kicked a goal. The Dogs outscored the Eagles five goals to two and the good work that Jack Petruccelle had been doing around stoppages, using the Bont as a starting point and then inflicting damage speeding out, was reversed going the other way.

Eagles fans had some respite with the win. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Bontempelli had nine of his touches in contests and won seven of them out of clearances with five score involvements.

The Eagles were still hanging in there and Kelly had a hand in one of their two goals to increase his influence on the game even more but West Coast’s threatening moments were becoming more spasmodic.

But if Simpson had been accused of not doing enough to save the game against Essendon two weeks ago, he certainly wasn’t going to be accused of not doing enough to try and win the game this time. Yeo went into the middle in the final term to match Bontempelli’s grunt.

And while Yeo finished this game on the bench with ice on a hamstring – he had swung the game back before he left it.

The Eagles had invested so much in the first three terms you had to wonder if they had enough left. They did. Bontempelli tired more individually than the Eagles did collectively.

Cripps kicked three of his five goals in the final term. And Simpson had replaced Campbell Chesser with Zane Trew and Trew gave them plenty with seven last-term disposals and a goal.

The Bulldogs had chances, but McGovern was showing as much late in the last as he did late in the first. He finished with 22 disposals and 326 metres gained.

Simpson was the coach under pressure heading in. Bulldogs mentor Luke Beveridge, who now has an uphill battle to guide a very talented list into finals, was under just as much pressure heading out of this one.

Originally published as Analysis: West Coast Eagles have a resounding win but is it too little, too late for coach Adam Simpson?