See what West Coast coach Adam Simpson had to say following his side’s 29-point victory over Adelaide on Friday night.
On whether losing Nic Naitanui through injury altered his side’s preparation…
“No, it’s not like that when you lose a player. Teams lose players all the time.
“It was more about the process and what we were going to do and how we were gong to go about it with (Jonathan) Giles and Scotty (Lycett) with the ruck stuff.
“Then (we focused on) how we are going to beat Adelaide over here. It was the planning. The players are in a pretty good space. They have been playing some pretty good football.”
On how his side denied Adelaide of its usual free-flowing, attacking football…
“I’m not going to go into the details of what we did. We’ve got a way that we like to play as well.
“When you get to play teams like this there is not a lot of change in the style of play. The top four or five teams seem to go, ‘We’re going to back ourselves in and good luck trying to beat us’. I think that’s justified for teams that are in the top four.
“We’re not quite there yet, but I think when we play our way and we play a pretty good brand we are hard to beat as well.”
On the ability of the Eagles’ second-tier players to step up in such a crucial game…
“I think there is a good, even spread at the moment across the board. I’m not quite sure how Dom Sheed faired, but I would have thought he had a decent impact on the game.
“There are always one or two guys who miss out, but they are playing their role and they’re making good contributions. It always helps when you get 18-20 guys digging in. I thought we got that tonight.”
On the emergence of 20-year-old defender Tom Barrass…
“I’m going to have to keep an eye on him now. If he doesn’t get the Rising Star for that one there is something wrong.
“He’s been a working project for our defenders. (Assistant coaches) Adrian Hickmott and Mark Nicoski are working hard on his development, and I think this year you can just see he is getting more and more confident.
“He had a pretty special game tonight.”
On his side’s fluctuating form on the road…
“We haven’t changes anything in terms of our process and our planning. We haven’t really done anything different.
“It’s good to have that belief. How many questions have I answered on our travel and form interstate? We lost to Geelong in Geelong, Sydney in Sydney and Hawthorn at the ‘G at the start of the year, and we weren’t good enough – we didn’t play well at all.
“That’s reasonable to ask those questions. It’s pleasing to get back on the winner’s list interstate.”
