West Coast coach Adam Simpson concedes the boldness of his crew is low, however he is urging his gamers to remain resilient and rebound strongly in Saturday evening’s conflict with Essendon at Optus Stadium.
Last week’s 116-point loss to Hawthorn was West Coast’s heaviest defeat in Simpson’s 10-year reign as coach.
It left the Eagles on backside of the desk with a 1-9 file and a proportion of 55.4.
West Coast have been lacking 10 of their finest 15 gamers towards Hawthorn they usually have been dealt an additional blow when Jamaine Jones suffered a critical ankle harm.
But the returns of Tom Barrass (sickness), Shannon Hurn (groin) and Elliot Yeo (groin) towards the Bombers will add very important expertise into West Coast’s struggling group.
Simpson is doing his finest to maintain spirits excessive.
“Confidence is low, no doubt after after last week, so we’ve got to stay resilient,” Simpson stated.
“We must discover a strategy to compete higher.
“We are on a little bit of a journey and there is no fast repair. But we must be higher than final week.
“And regardless of how young the side is or the talent that’s not available, we want more than what we delivered last week, obviously.”
With captain Luke Shuey nonetheless sidelined with an ankle harm, rising star Oscar Allen will skipper the facet this week.
Allen battled a sore knee towards the Hawks, however Simpson stated the 24-year-old had pulled up nicely.
“I was a bit worried when he got a knock on it. He came off the last 10 minutes,” Simpson stated.
“But he feels pretty good.”
Essendon snapped a four-match dropping streak with their one-point overcome Richmond final week.
The Bombers (5-5) can provide their proportion of 102.6 an enormous enhance with a giant win over a wounded Eagles outfit.
West Coast stars equivalent to Shuey, Nic Naitanui, Liam Ryan, Jamie Cripps, Jeremy McGovern, Tom Cole, and Jack Darling are nonetheless sidelined.
Simpson stated any crew would battle lacking so lots of their first-choice gamers.
“Last week we were missing 10 of our senior players,” Simpson stated.
“If you grab any team and take out their top 10 and just put the rest of the list in there, it’s a challenge to assess how you’re going.”
Shuey, Cripps, Hurn and McGovern are out of contract on the finish of the season, whereas the sturdiness of Naitanui and Yeo has been questioned.
Simpson concedes the membership continues to be but to “crack the code” on how to make sure the membership’s veterans are match and accessible to play every week.
Some arduous selections will must be made on the finish of the season, however Simpson would not need to get drawn into who will play on simply but.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
