West Coast coach Adam Simpson lamented an ineffective attacking effort after Sunday’s tough 76-point defeat to the Western Bulldogs.
Despite a competitive opening term, which saw the Eagles trailing by just two points at the first change, the visitors couldn’t sustain scoreboard pressure on the Bulldogs.
West Coast went goalless during the second and third quarters and registered their lowest score at Marvel Stadium of 3.12 (30) despite winning clearances by nine and matching the Bulldogs for inside 50s (51-all).
“Obviously the scoreboard speaks for itself. Our inability to hit the scoreboard is a fair concern,” Simpson said post-match.
“We’ve been going after a lot of things. The contest and clearances and those type of things. There’s some small wins there, but we need to get better at converting, keeping it in our front half, albeit we had 51 inside 50s today and they had the same amount.
“We look at some of those things and go ‘OK there’s a little bit of improvement there’, but it’s no excuse for the loss.
“Obviously we’re in a build, it’s going to take time and we’ll look at some positives, but we’ve got to be better than that.”
West Coast’s senior leaders stood up on Sunday, with Elliot Yeo and Jeremy McGovern inspirational, while co-captain Liam Duggan and star onballer Tim Kelly never gave up.
“You need your senior players,” Simpson said.
“While those kids get to learn and grow and understand what it’s like for a full season, you need your senior players.
“They’re critically important and that’s probably what we saw the last couple of years, they weren’t around and it made it even more harder.
“We understand it’s not pretty today. Thought we could have hit the scoreboard a bit more to be honest, but it’s still not enough, nowhere near enough.”
The Eagles will remain in Melbourne until Thursday before flying to Adelaide for a Gather Round clash with Sydney.
Forward recruit Tyler Brockman will miss the clash due to the concussion protocols, but the WAFL Eagles should regain Dom Sheed (foot), Liam Ryan (hamstring) and Jai Culley (ACL) within the next one-to-two weeks.
