West Coast captain Luke Shuey has promised followers a robust response when his struggling group tackle St Kilda at Optus Stadium on Sunday.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson has endured every week of unrelenting criticism within the wake of his aspect’s 171-point capitulation to Sydney final Saturday.
The equal-fourth largest loss in VFL/AFL historical past led to an outpouring of anger from West Coast followers, lots of whom referred to as for Simpson to be sacked.
Simpson is contracted till the top of 2025, and West Coast are sticking by the 2018 premiership coach.
The Eagles are on a 12-match shedding streak, with 4 of these defeats being by greater than 100 factors.
Each of the defeats throughout the shedding run has been by not less than 40 factors – a brand new document within the VFL/AFL.
Shuey stated the gamers – and never Simpson – are guilty for the group’s woes, and he is adamant there shall be a robust response in opposition to the Saints.
“We touched on how much those performances hurt our pride as a footy club, but more importantly our fans,” Shuey stated.
“So there will be a response this week.”
Some followers have threatened to point out their dissatisfaction by boycotting the opening time period of Sunday’s match.
Simpson is urging supporters to stay by the membership.
“You just hope, as much as they’re frustrated, that people support the club that’s held them in pretty good stead for a long period of time,” Simpson stated.
“You just hope the support is still there and they’ve got our backs as much as it’s hard to at the moment. But that’s up to them.”
West Coast have been boosted by the return of veterans Jamie Cripps (ankle) and Shannon Hurn (hamstring).
But that good news was tempered by the actual fact Elliot Yeo will miss three to 4 weeks with a hip harm.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon is anticipating an enormous response from West Coast after their humiliation by the hands of Sydney.
Lyon has turned up the warmth on his personal gamers this week, urging them to regain the starvation and dare that helped them win six of their opening eight video games.
St Kilda scored simply two first-half objectives in final week’s 28-point loss to Brisbane, and he needs them to be braver this week.
“Our midfield got smacked around the clearances,” Lyon stated.
“We weren’t brave when the game was up for grabs.
“You’ve bought to take the dangers then, not have an honourable come-from-behind loss.
“We played collapse-back footy. It was passive.”
Lyon has resisted the urge to make mass modifications, with the return of Seb Ross instead of Ben Paton the one tweak to the aspect this week.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
