Young West Coast co-captain Oscar Allen has an issued a statement about his under fire coach.
Pressure is building on Adam Simpson as the team limps though another disappointing AFL season following last year’s bottom-of-the-ladder finish.
On Sunday, the reigning wooden-spooners were spanked by 61 points during a home game against Hawthorn.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
“Their effort was appalling, absolutely appalling,” Essendon great Matthew Lloyd said on AFL.com.au after that result.
Now, Allen has come out and supported his coach.
“The group is completely behind Simmo,” Allen said.
“As a leader of the group, it wasn’t acceptable. We are clearly frustrated and we understand that fans are as well and we are owning that.
“We need to get back to work and get better.
“We have a game in five days and everyone in these four walls has Simmo’s back.”
Allen and Liam Duggan were appointed co-captains at the end of last year, replacing retired midfielder Luke Shuey.
But Allen has been sidelined for most the season, only returning in the past few weeks.
After a surprise win over Melbourne in Round 10, the Eagles have now lost five in a row, including a home loss to bottom team North Melbourne.
In the game against Hawthorn, the Eagles were smashed in almost every facet, including centre clearances (-10), contested possessions (-24), inside 50s (-27) and marks inside 50 (-18).
“If you don’t have (effort). then you don’t have much because they’re not a strong list,” Lloyd said.
“It’s grim times at the West Coast Eagles.”
Allen said the players had to respond.
“How can we get us all performing the best that we can? Our brand is focussing on our contest, pressure and playing front-half footy and at the moment it is a little aspirational,” he said.
“The gap between our worst and our best is too far and, until we can minimise that gap, we are not going to be a consistently competitive side.”
He said Simpson worked “as hard as anyone” to make sure the team was able to execute the game-plan.
He said they were unable to do that on the weekend and the players needed to own it.
“It’s a massive responsibility for us to make amends for it this weekend,” he said.
Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes has been a long-time critic of the Eagles but thought they had “turned the corner” this year.
However, Cornes is again worried about their direction and calling for a circuit-breaker.
“West Coast I thought had turned a corner and were not going to become the easy beats they have been for the last three years,” Cornes told SEN.
“To serve that up at home in front of a full house with the strongest team that you’ve had and a lot of the excuses around West Coast have been availability … well you had the availability, you turn up against a Hawthorn side in full rebuild mode at home, you nearly one and a half years older on average, you have 105 games experience versus 89 and you get beaten by a bunch of kids by 10 goals.
“And you’ve lost 55 out of your last 64. At some point, this club is going to have to have the circuit breaker and when that happens I don’t know but that was a damning performance.”
Cornes called for the Eagles to make a strong decision on Simpson, who is contracted until the end of next season.
“The only thing that saved him (last year) was the contract … there is no guarantees of his future at all,” Cornes said.
“It’s a tough decision for Adam to be in and it’s a tough decision for the club and its fans to in.
“That performance yesterday was a real warning sign.”