Every year as the West Coast Eagles plots its path forward, the club’s Board and Executive head out of town for a couple of days to sketch the road map for the future.

In November 2013 that retreat was held in Broome and in turn each member of the executive made a presentation detailing the intricacies of their departmental vision. It’s always intriguing to get an insight into the other departments, but football is the core business and it’s always the most stimulating.

This session was no different, except for the first time Adam Simpson was driving the football power point presentation.

For many of those assembled in the designated room it was their first exposure to the club’s new coach. The man who had been appointed to take over the reins of club legend John Worsfold, who had vacated his position after 12 years at the helm.

Some of the directors in the room had been privy to Simpson’s plan, his knowledge and views on how to take the club forward. They had seen it when he presented his blue print during the exhaustive application process.

Foer those who hadn’t seen the presentation, Simpson could hardly have been more impressive.

Clearly he was a next generation coach and coming out of the most successful system in the AFL he was obviously up to speed with the modern game. Anyone who had not been able to engage Simpson in a lengthy conversation before that day would surely have been comfortable that the club was in very good hands.

Simpson, a veteran of 305 games with North Melbourne and who had been a part of the Hawthorn coach staff for four years, was off and running as the new senior coach of the West Coast Eagles.

And he had hit the ground at speed.

In the initial phase of his coaching tenure, Simpson impressed as a man who quickly developed a rapport with the playing group and he identified as soon as pre-season training began that the first area to address was the team’s skill set.

At Hawthorn, a club that was the competition benchmark, coming off the 2013 premiership triumph against Fremantle, they were renowned for their ability to hit targets by hand and foot. The Eagles were deficient in that area.

So the initial focus was to lift the squad’s ability to win – and most importantly – retain possession.

As the 2014 season loomed the broad focus was to improve. While the simplest measure was to win more games, there was more to it than that. After finishing 13^th the previous year, it was about advancing up the ladder – step by step.

The year began encouragingly with the Eagles winning the first three games against the Western Bulldogs, St Kilda and Melbourne. It was a dream start for the new Eagles mentor, but he knew bigger challenges lay ahead.

The first of them would be against Geelong at Skilled Stadium and, unfortunately, the Eagles did not measure up, a 75-point defeat giving Simpson, his young coaching group and the players something of a reality check.

The Cats had been a team entrenched in the top half of the table for many years and there was much to learn from one of the most accomplished teams in the competition.

Unfortunately, that was the start of a tough and challenging run that saw West Coast lose seven of their next eight games, the only win a 111-point mauling of the fledgling GWS at Patersons Stadium.    

From the middle point of the season, there was a more even mix of victories and defeats, but the Eagles had to go into each week without captain Darren Glass, who retired after the Round 12 clash against Hawthorn.

Glass had simply hit the wall and despite managing his body, he was unable to meet the high standards he had set for himself.

For the remainder of the season the captaincy was rotated through the senior leadership group, with Matt Priddis, Shannon Hurn, Eric Mackenzie and Josh Kennedy alternating the responsibility.

The intention was not to audition for the role for the longer term, but that was how it panned out.

With the club winning 10 of 21 matches, they went into the final round with a glimmer of hope around a finals campaign. They needed to beat Gold Coast in round 23 and hope Sydney would get the job done against Richmond.

The Tigers were a game ahead of the Eagles, but West Coast had a superior percentage. The Swans were on top of the table and guaranteed a top two finish regardless of the result.

Sydney decided to rest a handful of their stars, Richmond won the match and West Coast’s season was over before they even played their final match against the Suns. It was deflating, but the Eagles completed the season with a 52-point win.

Simpson, who had started with an impressive presentation in Broome, completed his first season by finishing ninth, with a 50 percent winning ratio. He reminded his team of the need to ensure their destiny should be held in their own hands; relying on other teams to get the job done just doesn’t cut it.

It was gut wrenching to miss out on finals but the Eagles missed their chance to beat Richmond at Patersons Stadium a few weeks earlier.

Missed opportunities against Carlton, Collingwood and  Essendon in round 21 at Etihad Stadium, when leading by 34 points in the third quarter, proved costly.

After the team disappointment of again being spectators during the finals series, there was a thrilling high on which to complete the year when Matt Priddis became the third Brownlow medallist in club history.

And before the final votes were cast, the Eagles had already made an impact with Beau Waters winning the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award.

While Priddis won the Brownlow Medal, defender Eric Mackenzie pipped him in the John Worsfold Medal. Luke Shuey (third), Andrew Gaff (fourth), Jack Darling (fifth), Sam Butler (Chris Mainwaring Medal), Jeremy McGovern (Rookie of the Year) and Josh Kennedy (leading goalkicker) were the other award winners.

And Dean Cox joined Glass in announcing his retirement.