- Jan 7, 2010
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Sunday’s round five clash with Richmond looms as a watershed moment for Adam Simpson and his coaching tenure at West Coast.
It is a game which has been identified for weeks as one the Eagles should compete strongly in – maybe even win.
A home game against a fading dynasty who will be several players shy of their best line up.
Win or lose, Simpson’s team must at least back up their more competitive effort against Sydney in Mt Barker during the AFL’s Gather Round.
Backing up competitive performances hasn’t exactly been the Eagles strong suit in the past two seasons.
Their 19-point round two win over GWS in 2023 was followed by 13 games where the Eagles didn’t come within 40 points of an opponent, culminating in the 171 point flogging by Sydney at the SCG which placed Simpson’s job under threat.
Then the inevitable response which resulted in a narrow eight point loss to St Kilda was followed by three games when the Eagles weren’t closer than 38 points with two of those games blowing out to defeats of more than 70 points.
Tim Kelly and the Eagles need to back up a strong showing against Sydney this week against Richmond at home. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.
The five point win against fellow cellar dweller North Melbourne – and a very credible one point loss to Essendon had Eagles fans living in hope only to be crushed by 101 points by Fremantle.
Then came the coach-saving seven point win against the Western Bulldogs in round 23 which the Eagles have since painted as a line in the sand moment … but it was followed by a meek 45 point capitulation at home to Adelaide in the last game of the 2023 season.
The Eagles continue to speak the language of a team on the build.
“We again saw some good little wins from our group. We are chasing our contest pressure and front half footy and the takeaways from that were some improvements in those areas and we sustained it for a little bit longer,” assistant Luke Webster said of the loss to Sydney.
West Coast led at half time and were within 15 points at three quarter time with the last quarter breeze at their backs before fading to a 26-point loss.
Teammates get around young Eagle Jack Williams at Mt Barker during Gather Round. Picture: James Elsby/Getty Images.
“We have got to keep working to do it for four quarters,” he said.
Most significantly the Eagles learned a lesson on the value of pressure. They have chased clearance wins, contested ball wins and inside fifty wins all year. In the first quarter the Eagles lost the inside fifty battle 19-8, the contested possession battle 52-35 and the clearances 18-7. But they brought a heat to the contest that stymied Sydney’s ball movement and scoring and took two half chances of their own off the back of their pressure to give themselves a toehold in the game kicking into the wind.
“In the past if they (key stats) had been against us we wouldn’t have been in the game,” Webster said. “We felt our guys were up for the fight. As much as the numbers we go after, the KPIs we go after weren’t in our favour I thought the guys had a real crack at trying to nullify Sydney’s ball movement, to bring some pressure and to try to keep the ball in our front half.”
Debutant Loch Rawlinson lined up for his first game on the weekend. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.
The question facing the Eagles now is whether this performance will be a foundation stone to build and improve on or whether it will be another case of West Coast picking up the tools and fighting for a week or two, then putting them down again and resting for a month or more.
“Every club is trying to back it up each week. We are on a different journey to some others we are chasing those identity pieces and we have got to keep sustaining it,” Webster said. “We are going to keep striving to sustain it for longer and our group just has to keep trying to back it up.”
“We have been chasing it for a while in our pre-season. We have just got to keep training it and define what it looks like to our player group. We have to keep giving opportunities to be able to train that. We have to keep showing them the areas they have got to get better at and we have got to keep showing them when they do well, hopefully that sinks in and we keep getting that for the rest of the time.”
Time is the operative word for Simpson. It might be that two full years of time left on his contract saved him at the end of last year.
It might also be that the time he has to prove he can oversee this rebuild gets shortened every time his team produces an uncompetitive performance.
And there is going to be no better time than this weekend to build on an effort against Sydney that has generated a flicker of hope.
A home game against a Richmond team that like West Coast has ageing stars and key absences at both ends of the ground.
And after playing three of the first four games against 2023 finalists West Coast have privately considered this game one they could put their best foot forward in and have a fighting chance.
That best foot needs to come forward now or it will be viewed as a significant step back for the team and Simpson.
Originally published as Duffield: Why this weekend’s clash against Richmond is a watershed game for West Coast
