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Woeful West Coast are pretenders and nothing else

September is slipping from the reach of the Eagles. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Roar Guru
4th June, 2017
33
1499 Reads

I am tired of listening to the rhetoric offered up by the likes of Matt Priddis, Shannon Hurn, and to a lesser extent Adam Simpson, about the form of the West Coast Eagles.

I said to a lesser extent Simpson because on Saturday I saw a person in his press conference after the game who looks sick and tired of offering up the same old excuses that have seemingly become the mantra of the Eagles.

I think Simpson is coming to the realisation that this side is not going to win him a premiership before his tenure is up at the end of the 2019 season.

A person who looks like he is tired of the effort, or lack thereof, the playing group is delivering week in week out.

A person who I think is willing, if not ready to make some sweeping changes to the playing group. Changes that need to be made now so that Simpson has enough time to blood and mould the young recruits playing at East Perth into a premiership side, and move along or trade those players in the playing group who continually disappoint him with their lack of effort and performance.

Players such as Josh Hill, Mark Le Cras and Jack Darling, to name a few! Do we really need to put up with the likes of these three wondering if they will bring their A, or even B-game on game day, let alone take them into a final series and hopefully a grand final with the same doubts?

Your chances in a coin toss are better than just one of these three performing on game day, let alone all three that would be required to perform on the big day to win a flag. \

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Priddis has come out with classic party-line rhetoric. ‘At our best we can beat any side in the competition’, you know, that sort of thing.

Sorry Pridda but your best football this year has been wins against Port Adelaide and the Bulldogs where Port lost the game in the third quarter missing six gettable goals, and just getting over the line against the Bulldogs kicking a woeful single goal in the second half.

You were lucky to beat St Kilda, who blew it by kicking 19 points, and lucky meeting North Melbourne in the first round, who would flog you now with the footy they are currently playing.

The same sort of stuff is heard from captain Hurn, who can struggle to string a coherent sentenc together in an interview. ‘It’s all about doing the basics well and being consistent’.

Ripping insight, Shannon – the Eagles are consistently bad with the way you guys go about the basics of footy, so I guess that’s something.

If the rest of the Eagles playing group believe the rhetoric Pridda and Hurn offer up on a weekly basis to the media, then they are all living a Walter Mitty type existence as AFL football players. That is, they are pretenders!

The Eagles have seven home games (Geelong, Melbourne, Port ADelaide, Fremantle, Brisbane, Carlton) at Domain and four away games (Bulldogs, Colllingwood, St Kilda, GWS) remaining in the season. I can see them winning only three home games and maybe one away game.

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For a side that many expected to challenge for a flag this year, despite missing Nic Nat for most of the season, that will give them with ten wins and twelve losses for the season and leave them outside the eight.

Look out for the blood in the streets of Perth!

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