After practically 11 years 230 video games, an unforgettable premiership and a swathe of highs and lows, Adam Simpson’s time as West Coast coach is up.
As with most cases of a membership and its most public determine parting methods, Simpson’s exit from the Eagles is an ignominious one: having presided over the worst interval of their historical past, having received simply ten of his final 70 video games in cost from halfway by 2021, few coaches within the historical past of the sport have had a worse file over that lengthy a time frame.
Nonetheless, his success in taking up an Eagles staff that appeared on its final legs when membership nice John Worsfold stepped down on the finish of 2013 and rebuilding them right into a powerhouse that made finals in six consecutive seasons, reached two grand finals and received the moment traditional 2018 decider, means he’ll nonetheless go down as certainly one of West Coast’s most interesting ever coaches.
With a successful file nonetheless within the inexperienced regardless of the horrors of the final three years – although one other loss to Brisbane in Spherical 18 ought to he take up the Eagles’ provide to educate a farewell sport will go away him with a fair 115 wins and 115 losses (plus one draw) – there have been many highs throughout the 48-year previous’s tenure, in addition to the crushing latest lows.
So from the ‘Weagles Internet’, by to Dom Sheed’s most well-known of grand ultimate targets, and right through to the top, listed here are eight defining moments from Adam Simpson’s lengthy and profitable stint as West Coast coach.
1. Flat-track bullies
The Eagles Simpson took over in late 2013, simply 4 years after ending up a protracted and adorned profession at North Melbourne, have been in a rut: after preliminary and semi ultimate appearances in 2011 and 2012 underneath Worsfold to rebound from their fist ever wood spoon in 2010, the facet had misplaced eight of its final 11 video games to complete a lowly thirteenth, and outcome within the 2006 premiership coach stepping away by mutual settlement.
Simpson’s first season on the helm was one dominated by a obtrusive stat: the Eagles, regardless of ending ninth and only a sport exterior finals with a wholesome proportion of 116.9, have been the one staff within the competitors to not beat a single staff contained in the eight. Even wood spoon winners St Kilda achieved a pair of such scalps.
Essentially the most obtrusive instance of their dominance over lesser groups, and lack of the identical in opposition to anybody half first rate, got here in Spherical 4: prime of the desk after three commanding wins over bottom-five groups the Western Bulldogs (65 factors), Melbourne (93) and St Kilda (25), the Eagles headed to Geleong in Spherical 4 to face the likewise undefeated Cats.
They have been embarrassed: the Eagles failed to attain a single purpose after quarter time, have been crunched by 75 factors, and would lose six of their subsequent seven video games to fall out of the eight for good.
The ‘flat-track bully’ tag was shortly, and justifiably, utilized: and regardless of far larger success through the years to return, it was a status that will take a while to shake off.
2. The ‘Weagles Internet’
2015 started in disastrous trend for Simpson’s Eagles: key defender and reigning finest and fairest Eric Mackenzie ruptured his ACL within the pre-season, whereas simply minutes right into a Spherical 1 loss to the Western Bulldogs, their secondary tall again Mitch Brown suffered the identical damage.
Confronted with a full season with out his two premier key defenders, Simpson and his staff needed to adapt and innovate: and boy, did they try this.
The outcome was a zone defensive system that turned the envy of the remainder of the league, famously dubbed the ‘Weagles Internet’ by Fox Footy presenter and former nice Gerard Healy.
That such a set-up is a typical sight these days in no small half as a consequence of its profitable implementation on the Eagles in 2015, borne out of a necessity to strive one thing totally different to fight their key again scenario.
The system was a smashing success: regardless of dropping Mackenzie and Brown, the Eagles had the fourth-stingiest defence for the 2015 season, and conceded a mere eight factors greater than the second-best Fremantle and 4 extra targets than the league’s finest, Hawthorn.
Extra considerably of all, it gave rise to certainly one of trendy soccer’s nice intercepting defenders: the lynchpin of the new-look backline, Jeremy McGovern completed second within the league for intercept marks that 12 months, and whereas he’d miss out on All-Australian choice, he’d make it in every of the following 4 years, and is a robust likelihood to make it 5 in 2024 ought to he preserve his sturdy kind.
Completely suited to the slim confines of Subiaco Oval, the Eagles would lose simply twice there all 12 months, with their 11 victories coming at a median of 62 factors apiece and together with a scintillating qualifying ultimate victory over Hawthorn en path to the grand ultimate.
In opposition to one of many best attacking groups of the fashionable period, the Eagles conceded simply 4 targets within the first three quarters to steer by 50 factors, the eventual 32-point triumph putting in them as premiership favourites.
It was the Hawks – and the MCG – that proved their undoing, although: having performed simply as soon as there all season, and up in opposition to the two-time reigning premiers within the decider, the Eagles’ much-vaunted defensive system was picked aside by the brilliance of Cyril Rioli, Jack Gunston, Jarryd Roughead and co., conceding 100 factors for simply the second time all season and walloped by 46 factors.
Nonetheless, a brilliant future appeared to be forward for a younger, gifted staff with strengths all around the subject.
3. By the pores and skin of their enamel… twice
2016 and 2017 have been irritating years at West Coast, with the success many predicted would come after their breakthrough 2015 not coming as simply as Simpson would have hoped.
The ‘flat-track bully’ tag was changed by a fair worse sobriquet: that of ‘home-track heroes’. The Eagles have been 11-2 at Subiaco Oval in 2016 and 9-3 in 2017, however vital struggles on the street left them wallowing within the Fifth-Eighth vary as an alternative of competing for the highest 4 and by extension the premiership.
In the meantime, a disastrous elimination ultimate loss to eventual premiers the Western Bulldogs made for a grim finish to 2016, and resulted in loads of strain on Simpson’s head – particularly with star ruckman Nic Naitanui to overlook the whole 2017 season.
The outcome was one other 12 months of mid-table mediocrity, with dominance at residence and ineptitude away: sitting ninth and a sport and proportion exterior finals forward of Spherical 23, and going through minor premiers Adelaide, the Eagles appeared at lengthy odds for a 3rd straight September.
However having been given an opportunity through Melbourne’s upset loss to Collingwood, the Eagles would seize their alternative within the final ever AFL match at Subiaco, defeating the Crows by 29 factors – sufficient, thanks to 2 targets within the dying minutes, to leapfrog the Dees into September by a mere 0.5 per cent (and briefly crash The Roar’s servers as everybody clamoured to weigh in rushed to the stay weblog, as I recall).
Two weeks later, as heavy underdogs in an away elimination ultimate conflict with the fifth-placed Port Adelaide, Simpson’s Eagles produced one other miracle.
After the guests kicked seven of the primary 9 targets of the sport to leap out to an early lead, a Energy comeback noticed them hit the entrance early within the final quarter; however simply when all hope appeared misplaced, two fast targets, one from recruit Drew Petrie, and a determined, last-minute defensive act from Mackenzie to drive the ball out of bounds mere centimetres from what would have been the Energy’s successful level, pressured a draw and simply the third ever occasion of additional time being wanted to resolve a ultimate.
As soon as once more falling behind, the Eagles trailed within the ultimate moments, earlier than a trademark Luke Shuey shrug of the shoulders at a ahead 50 stoppage noticed Jared Polec’s deal with go excessive, leading to a – not completely uncontroversial – free kick.
Because the siren sounded, with each groups’ seasons on the road, Shuey calmly went again and slotted a well-known, iconic purpose to ship the Eagles by to the semi-finals.
Two video games; two well-known, edge-of-your-seat triumphs.
However a humbling semi-final loss to GWS laid naked how far the Eagles remained off the tempo of the true contenders, and with membership nice and 2014 Brownlow Medallist Matt Priddis retiring, and a brand new stadium to return to grips with, the membership appeared set to droop within the years to return.
4. “Sheed from the boundary…”
Having been infamously tipped for the wood spoon by Robert Partitions within the 2018 pre-season, West Coast’s run to that 12 months’s premiership is certainly one of soccer’s impossible success tales.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the Eagles turned a mighty drive as soon as extra, this time one – thanks partly to the scale of the brand new Optus Stadium being practically an identical to the MCG – able to beating anybody, anyplace, anytime.
Ten straight victories after a Spherical 1 loss to Sydney cemented the Eagles as a serious contender, with a rollicking 47-point overcome reigning premiers Richmond in Spherical 9 seeing them ascend to the highest of the ladder. The backline was miserly, Naitanui was again and firing within the ruck, and up ahead, Jack Darling was essentially the most dominant key ahead within the league, with 28 targets to his title by Spherical 9.
However earlier than September arrived, the Eagles needed to take care of adversity aplenty: Naitanui’s 12 months was ended by one other knee damage in an in any other case emphatic win over Collingwood on the MCG, whereas star midfielder Andrew Gaff’s downfall was completely of his personal making, suspended for eight matches for a king hit on Fremantle’s Andrew Brayshaw in a spiteful Western Derby. Pictures of Simpson consoling a distraught Gaff on the Eagles bench instantly after the strike circled across the footy world, and a post-match press convention during which he staunchly defended his participant, have been met with a combined response.
Simpson, although, had contingencies: into Naitanui’s footwear got here long-term backup Nathan Vardy, who had helped shoulder the load in 2017 too, whereas younger midfielder Dom Sheed would substitute Gaff on a wing.
Ending 2018 second on the ladder behind overwhelming flag favourites the Tigers, the Eagles squeaked previous the Magpies to e book a house preliminary ultimate, then demolished an in-form Melbourne to progress to the massive dance. As an added boon, the Tigers had been stunningly knocked out the day earlier than by the hands of the Pies, which means for the primary time all season, the Eagles have been flag favourites.
The story of that traditional grand ultimate hardly wants recounting: everybody is aware of how the Pies burst out of the blocks with the primary 5 targets, and the way the Eagles slowly however steadily reeled them in for the following three and a half quarters, till with underneath two minutes remaining, Dom Sheed marked within the pocket after Brayden Maynard was blatantly blocked and from a decent angle, kicked one of the vital well-known grand ultimate targets of all.
The five-point Eagles lead as the ultimate siren blew was their largest of the day – they’d led for barely two per cent of proceedings. But it was sufficient for the membership’s fourth premiership.
Channel 7’s resolution to point out Pies coach Nathan Buckley’s shattered response to defeat, versus the normal shot of the victorious coaches field erupting in pleasure, was extensively condemned, but it surely took little gloss off the Eagles’ celebrations; celebrations finest summed up by the soon-to-retire Mark LeCras.
For all that will unfold in his ultimate years in cost, the 2018 grand ultimate win will stay Simpson’s defining second as coach: minus two superstars, away from residence, having given the opposition a five-goal soar, few premierships have been extra hard-earned.
It additionally serves as certainly one of footy’s nice sliding doorways moments: had Sheed’s kick drifted two metres wider and Buckley’s Magpies been the victors, would Collingwood have been so fast to maneuver on from him in mid-2021, and would the Eagles have misplaced endurance with Simpson sooner?
5. ‘Woe is us’ West Coast
After remaining sturdy in 2019, albeit ousted on the semi ultimate stage after a disastrous residence loss to Hawthorn within the ultimate spherical value them a seemingly safe top-four spot, 2020 was meant to be the 12 months for the Eagles. With Tim Kelly having arrived from Geelong, and Naitanui again for a full season, West Coast have been premiership favourites as Spherical 1 rolled round.
However, after all, issues have been about to alter within the AFL. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic pressured the league right into a three-month hiatus, after which when it did return, the Eagles joined Fremantle, Adelaide and Port Adelaide in a swiftly organized ‘hub’ in Queensland, as a result of Western Australian authorities’s hardline border insurance policies making journey into the state all however inconceivable.
No staff dealt with the change worse than the Eagles. Whether or not as a result of ageing nature of the checklist leaving many involved about family and friends remaining behind in Perth, or preoccupied – in Kelly’s case – with taking care of these family members who got here throughout with them, three consecutive losses, together with a shock defeat to Gold Coast, left their season in peril of spiralling uncontrolled.
Whereas the Eagles regrouped, completed their stint within the hub with two wins and would lose simply twice extra within the home-and-away season, their sluggish begin would have dire penalties. They’d end in fifth, proportion behind the fourth-placed Cats and simply two factors adrift of the Tigers in third – only one extra hub win would have granted them a treasured double likelihood.
Their season might hardly have ended extra sarcastically, both: going through a Collingwood staff who have been pressured to endure WA’s strict border insurance policies that drastically impacted their skill to coach within the lead-up to the elimination ultimate, the so-called ‘Soiled Pies’ have been barely given a snowball’s likelihood in hell of a win… but on the again of three targets from Mason Cox, they did simply that, successful the so-called ‘unwinnable sport’, within the phrases of commentator James Brayshaw, by a solitary level.
It was humiliating for the Eagles – and it will show an sick omen for the despair to return.
6. The start of the top
The Eagles’ wretched stint solely started in earnest in 2022, however the seeds of the final three years have been sown within the again finish of 2021, because it turned obvious Simpson’s staff have been on the slide.
With the season once more verging on normality – at the very least for the primary half of it – the early indicators have been simple to disregard: a shock residence loss to Essendon right here, a disastrous capitulation to the Western Bulldogs in entrance of COVID-enforced empty stands through a last-minute snap lockdown there.
However really the primary signal that each one was not proper at West Coast got here in Spherical 16, after they headed to Geelong to play Sydney – sure, it was that sort of 12 months – as favourites. Three hours later, that they had been completely demolished, kicking simply three targets en path to a 92-point shellacking.
Per week later, when the footy world anticipated a response, the Eagles have been dealt additional humiliation: at residence in opposition to the last-placed North Melbourne and with their finals hopes on the road, they managed simply three targets up till three-quarter time, awakened with a four-goal burst to begin the final that made victory appear assured, after which let the Kangaroos reassert management and safe a surprising 12-point win.
The Eagles remained contained in the eight, however all of a sudden, they have been everybody’s tip to overlook the finals: and some weeks later, they’d succumb in every of their final 4 matches and, for the primary time since Simpson’s first season in cost seven years prior, discovered themselves watching on as September dawned
7. Historic horrors
A e book in regards to the inside doom that has plagued the Eagles from 2022 onwards could be an enchanting learn: absolutely no membership within the historical past of the sport, save for maybe the loss of life throes of Fitzroy, has endured so many disasters in so brief a time span.
Western Australia’s newly reopened borders had a bitter consequence for the Eagles: years of safety from the COVID outbreak that had ravaged the east coast was all of a sudden gone, and whereas there have been far fewer deaths, the AFL’s stringent insurance policies barring gamers with the virus from enjoying – and the membership’s obvious flippancy in retaining theirs out of hurt’s approach – meant disaster.
So extreme was the outbreak on the Eagles that they needed to name upon the league’s reserve of WAFL top-up gamers merely to subject a facet within the early rounds: as Simpson quipped earlier than one match, gamers have been having to introduce themselves to their new teammates earlier than video games.
It was right here, although, the place Simpson’s obvious slack therapy of his gamers got here underneath scrutiny: images of seven gamers attending a nightclub within the midst of the COVID outbreak pressured the Eagles to take motion, however there have been absolutely many different cases of gamers flaunting their obligations that went unnoticed by the press.
That was solely made worse when the membership selected solely to positive these seven moderately than droop them.
“They need to simply play brief suited in opposition to Melbourne for the message it sends to their requirements and their tradition… I’d cop the 220-point hiding,” Gerard Whateley opined on AFL 360.
To take action would have left the Eagles much more undermanned than they already have been, however the lack of a robust stance in opposition to them was telling, and the senior coach’s lenience turned a defining attribute of his final years in cost.
2023 was even worse: with a horror, never-ending run of accidents finest summed up by a carnage-filled Derby loss to Fremantle, Simpson and his staff didn’t have a prayer of being aggressive.
The issue was, they performed and coached prefer it: the Eagles have been 5 instances overwhelmed by 100 factors or extra, together with successive losses by a mixed 293 factors to Adelaide and Sydney, with their proportion of 53 by 12 months’s finish one of many worst ever recorded. Imaginative and prescient of a dismayed Simpson not with the ability to look throughout matches, or listlessly slogging by press conferences after the newest humiliating thrashing, instructed the dire run, and the extreme media scrutiny it generated, was taking a hefty toll.
All up, the Eagles received simply 5 of 45 video games throughout that two-season interval, had seven triple-figure defeats, and noticed a rating of careers, most notably Gaff’s, wither and die amid the disaster.
Maybe the one cause Simpson survived so long as he did was the sense that the staff was so dangerous that no new coach might probably do something about it; nicely, that plus the big payout the membership would owe each Simpson, who was contracted till 2025, and the AFL because of its ‘luxurious tax’.
8. A dignified exit?
And so we come to now, with Simpson finally, after six straight losses and 9 defeats of their final ten matches, parting methods with the membership he took to the very prime six years in the past.
His departure has been a combined bag: the announcement of a mutual shifting on permits him the dignity of leaving with out being formally sacked, although he’s the primary Eagles coach in its historical past to be dumped mid-season, and the primary premiership coach to be handled on this method since Port Adelaide’s Mark Williams again in 2009.
On the identical time, although, the unresolved query of whether or not Simpson will step away instantly or coach one final sport in opposition to Brisbane on Sunday led to a farcical change between him and CEO Don Pyke at their press convention, whereas the applause from the enjoying group in attendance as Simpson ripped into his critics within the media was a contact wealthy given the intensive leaks of participant discontent to the press performed a key position in hastening his exit.
Premierships are laborious to return by, and Simpson will without end have one to his title: regardless of all that he has overseen, a few of it his personal fault and far of it not, within the final three years of hell, that picture of him holding the cup aloft with Shannon Hurn will imply his title isn’t removed from anybody’s ideas when candidates for vacancies at different golf equipment are mentioned.
Simpson will now, by his personal admission, take time away from the sport to recharge, however it will be a shock to not see him rejoin the AFL teaching ranks at some point of the years to return. Anybody who has ever been a ok candidate to be appointed as head coach is a invaluable commodity to have supporting the person in cost, and Simpson’s file is best than most.
Maybe better of all, regardless of ugly losses of their previous fortnight, the Eagles have turned one thing of a nook in 2024, led by the brilliance of Harley Reid; the brand new man who inherits this staff, almost definitely Dean Cox at this stage, has way more to work with than he would have had 12 months in the past, on the very peak of their woes.
The West Coast teaching job has been the hardest in soccer for 2 and a half years now.
No matter his failings, nonetheless a lot he contributed to these horrors, Simpson deserves credit score at the very least for enduring all of it and persevering.
And he’ll at all times have that magical Saturday in late 2018.
