West Coast and Adam Simpson need to talk.
How much longer can this go on for?
The coach might be signed up until the end of 2024, but after an outstanding nine-year stint with the Eagles, which has included a premiership and two grand finals, is he the right man to oversee what will surely be a rebuild that extends well beyond the expiry date of his current deal?
After all, clubs splitting with their senior coaches with two years still remaining on their contract isnโt a completely foreign concept in the AFL world, just ask former Essendon coach Matthew Knights.
Itโs not that Simpson canโt coach, clearly he can and he would surely get a gig somewhere else (possibly even as a senior coach) if he did depart Optus Stadium, but based on recent performances, it would appear as though things have become so stale at the once-mighty club, that both parties need a clean break from one another.
What other conclusion can be drawn after what theyโve served up in the past seven rounds?
Since recording their stirring victory over Collingwood in Round 4 (their one and only triumph of 2022), West Coast have lost their past seven games by an average of 80 points. Thatโs right 80 points. On average.
Two of their last three games at Optus Stadium have resulted in losses by over 100 points. Prior to this season, the Eagles had lost just one game at home by a triple-figure margin in 35 years.
Their percentage has plummeted to a jaw-dropping 49.7, which is 16 per cent lower than their previous worst figure of 65.9 in 2008.
To put that into context, poor old Fitzroy in their final year in 1996, playing with their soul ripped out, finished with a percentage of 49.5, having also just managed one victory.
The Roy Boysโ average losing margin that year was 72 points, West Coastโs this year is 66 points.
Make no mistake, the Eagles are terrible on an historic level.
Itโs enough to make West Coast fans yearn for a return to the Ken Judge ochre jumper days.
Lucky for the modern-day Eagles, they are one of the most powerful and richest sporting clubs in the land, unlike Fitzroy who finished up by owing the government of Nauru a debt of over $1 million.
Yes, West Coast suffered not only a wretched injury run heading into this year, but then also copped a COVID spurt on top of that, forcing them to use top-up players on more than one occasion.
But surely that cannot be used as an excuse anymore.
And how come the other Perth team Fremantle havenโt been impacted by COVID as badly as the Eagles? Quite the opposite. The Dockers just snapped the premiership favouritesโ 17-game winning streak at the MCG, just a few weeks after beating the Cats in Geelong, and are a flag fancy themselves.
Contrast that to CCTV of West Coast players going out on the town when their team, whose personnel situation was already threadbare, desperately needed them to adhere to COVID-sensible practices.
It just smacks of one team being extremely professional and preparing meticulously for every single game, and the other one not giving a stuff.
Besides, the Eagles showed against the Magpies at Marvel Stadium only a couple of months ago that they are capable of digging deep and producing an impressive performance โ on the road no less.
What has happened since then? For some reason, their willingness to fight hard has lasted barely a quarter in each match before they turn their toes up.
They are still missing key players to injury, but so is almost every club at the moment. And there is no excuse for the lame effort and fight they are displaying week in, week out.
After all, their most recent side that lost to the Bulldogs by 101 points still featured Tom Barrass, Jamie Cripps, Jack Darling, Liam Duggan, Andrew Gaff, Tim Kelly, Josh Kennedy, Jeremy McGovern, Jack Redden and Luke Shuey.
Simpsonโs message couldnโt still be resonating, could it?
Something has got to give. A circuit breaker is urgently required.
Of course, the club and Simpson continue to say all the right things publicly.
Last month, Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett declared โthere is no chanceโ that Simpson wonโt be coaching the side โgoing forwardโ.
And after their most recent shellacking at the hands of the Bulldogs, which saw Luke Beveridgeโs side equal the VFL/AFL record for most individual goalkickers in a game (16), Simpson played the role of a coach still seemingly invested in the cause perfectly.
โWe canโt shy away from it. Itโs not a quick fix, weโll hopefully get seven or eight players back by the end of the year. But weโve got to improve with what weโve got as well,โ he said during the week.
โThatโs our challenge as a coaching group, stay balanced, where youโre still looking for little wins but also not accepting the big losses.
โI donโt want to go into a game with a defeatist attitude, so weโve got to keep learning a style that we want to one day be successful with.
โChanging things every week just to mitigate the losses, I donโt know if thatโs the best way to develop.
โWeโll still go with trying to set up the game to win, get better, turn a quarter into a half, turn a half into three quarters and hopefully get some success in the future.โ
But do both the club and coach have to keep this up? Season 2024 is a long time away, and given the age demographics of West Coastโs list, the rebuild to make them a finals contender again could very well be an operation that lasts five years at a minimum.
If the Eagles still believe Simpson is their man for the long haul, and that his message is not being lost on the players, then that would mean his tenure could nudge 15 years.
If not, whatโs the harm in taking a mature approach to the situation, come to a financial agreement, acknowledge how great both parties have been for each other, and wish each other good luck for the future?
You get the sense that there could be a rival club or two in need of an experienced, premiership coach for season 2023.
