- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Rock-bottom West Coast need a full clean-out of coaches and a senior core playing for cash rather than the club, Eagles great Scott Cummings says.
Cummings, who led the Eagles’ goalkicking in 1999, says sweeping change is needed as the club reels from a record 171-point loss to Sydney.
Coach Adam Simpson has been backed by West Coast chairman Paul Fitzpatrick but Cummings says a clean-out is required.
“I generally loathe seeing a coach get removed halfway through a season or late in a season,” Cummings told SEN radio on Monday.
“Or supporters screaming out ‘we want heads’ and ‘heads must roll’, stability is probably the number one thing.
“But with the West Coast Eagles, stability is out the window.
“They need a full clean-out. They need new voices, they need new faces.
“And they need players that give a toss because there’s too many there right now, I’m only talking senior players, that just don’t care and it shows.”
Cummings labelled the Eagles’ effort as “putrid” in the loss to the Swans which extends the club-record losing streak to 12 games – four of the past eight defeats have been by more than 100 points.
“What I saw on the weekend was just putrid from senior players who have been there a long, long time who keep saying how much they love the club,” Cummings said.
“At the moment I am seeing players play for cash, not for their club, they’re playing for contracts.
“There’s a handful of players that if they decide to go on at the end of the year, they are playing for money.
“Because there is no way in the world you can watch what we saw on Saturday and say that they care or have any pride in their jumper at the moment.
“For that reason alone, to me, says there needs be change.”
(Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
West Coast coach Adam Simpson insists that he remains the right person to lead the embattled club despite their record-breaking 171-point loss to Sydney.
The Eagles plummeted to a new low in their dismal season – and their heaviest defeat in club history – as the rampant Swans became the first AFL team to score a double ton since 2011.
It took the Swans only 26 seconds to boot their first major and they had little trouble piling on the goals from there for a 31.19 (205) to 5.4 (34) triumph over the Eagles at the SCG on Saturday.
A dejected Simpson conceded the performance was “unacceptable” and “embarrassing” but was adamant that he can guide the Eagles out of the slump.
“We have just got to accept it and make the most of it, and try and be more competitive because it was unacceptable tonight. It was embarrassing,” Simpson said.
“I’m not accepting it, but there’s not much we can do outside of keep rolling up our sleeves, train as hard as we can and try and get better.”
A solemn Simpson revealed that he had not spoken to the Eagles players in the immediate moments after the match but refused to share publicly where any conversations would head.
The Eagles’ coach since 2014 was unwavering when asked whether he was the right person to continue leading the club, answering with a forthright “yes”.
The bottom-placed Eagles have now lost their past 12 matches to stand at 1-13 for the season with a dire percentage of 47.3.
(AAP Image/Julian Smith)
West Coast have been hit hard by injury throughout much of the season and only had two AFL-listed players available to play in their second-tier WAFL side.
Veterans Shannon Hurn and Jamie Cripps are expected to be available to face St Kilda next week, though Jeremy McGovern is likely to miss as the Eagles are again forced to call on their younger players.
“We have just got to keep giving these young players opportunities, they’re going to learn the hard way,” Simpson said.
“A lot of those guys with the full list, senior and younger players wouldn’t be playing. We haven’t got much of a choice.
“But there’s some positives in that. I know it looks like the end of the world at the moment, but the exposure these kids are getting, it’s going to pay us back.
“Not tomorrow and probably not next week, but keep exposing (young players) to playing at the SCG, playing against last year’s grand finalist, playing in different positions, trying to build some resilience. That’s what it’s all about.
“This will pass. It just hurts a lot at the moment.”
Simpson has since received the dreaded public show of support from the Eagles, who released an open letter to members on Sunday afternoon supporting the embattled coach to continue in the role.
The ‘support from the board’ message has become somewhat of a poisoned chalice in sport, and it remains to be seen whether Simpson will see out the year, let alone the remaining two years on his contract.
“Obviously, Adam Simpson and his coaching staff have been limited with what they can do with such a long injury list,” West Coast chairman Paul Fitzpatrick wrote.
“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.
“In closing, we do hear you and we urge you to stick with us through this.
“We need you more than ever. It will turn because everyone at the club is prepared to roll up their sleeves and get it done.”
Simpson labelled the loss to Sydney as embarrassing and unacceptable, but insists he’s the right man to lead the club forward.
The 47-year-old has been in charge since 2014, with the highlight of his tenure the 2018 premiership triumph.
But just three wins in the past 40 games has made Simpson’s position near untenable, with many fans now calling for him to move aside.
Fitzpatrick labelled the loss to Sydney as one of the “darkest days in the history of the football club”.
“We know our members and fans are hurting and so is everyone inside the football club,” he wrote.
“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.”
West Coast are hopeful that Shannon Hurn (hamstring) and Jamie Cripps (ankle) can return for next Sunday’s home clash with St Kilda.
Former Richmond coach Damien Hardwick wants to coach at AFL level again, admitting he already misses life in the hot seat.
Triple-premiership mentor Hardwick departed the Tigers last month after 14 years at the helm.
He has spent time travelling the US but long appeared destined to return to coaching.
“I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t see myself doing it,” Hardwick told the Dyl and Friends podcast, released on Monday.
“I love it. I miss it. I’ve been out for two weeks and I wanted to miss it, if that made sense. But I needed to decompress for a while, I (needed) to go away, reflect, figure out things that make me good and things that can.
“I need a bit of time but I just love the game. Like everyone, I’ve known it for a long time.
“At some stage I will probably step back in. When that is, I’m not too sure.
“For me, a new challenge – and whatever that looks like, I’m not too sure. But things are exciting like that.”
Hardwick’s declaration will undoubtedly spark interest from multiple clubs.
He has been consistently linked to Gold Coast despite his former Port Adelaide premiership teammate Stuart Dew being contracted until the end of next season.
Port mentor Ken Hinkley is out of contract at season’s end and both the Power and their coach have put off any talks until August.
West Coast have backed Adam Simpson but the premiership coach is under intense scrutiny amid their woes.
There is also uncertainty at North Melbourne, where Brett Ratten is caretaker while Alastair Clarkson remains on indefinite personal leave.
Hardwick admitted he’d struggled without the routine of AFL, after a long playing and coaching career.
“The one thing that footy does is (make you) really routine-orientated and all of a sudden you take that away and it’s amazing how quickly (you miss it),” he said.
“You enjoy the first couple of days but then it’s like, ‘Oh, what am I going to do now?’
“… Footy was such a big part of my life and it sort of defined me in a way because I was in that cycle.”
Hardwick believed he had timed his exit from Richmond well.
“I wanted to go out feeling great about what I’d achieved and the club that I’d been at, rather than resenting the club – which I’d seen a lot of other coaches go out that way as well,” he said.
© AAP
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.