Interim coach Jarrad Schofield is calling on West Coast’s players to ‘double down’ on what worked in a tight loss against Brisbane as the Eagles fly east seeking victory over St Kilda.
In his first game in charge following Adam Simpson’s departure, Schofield was pleased by West Coast’s elite pressure, strong contest work and willingness to take the game on.
The next step is to display that intensity and freedom more consistently across the final six games of 2024.
“We’ll continue to double down on what I think we saw in our game last week for longer periods,” Schofield said.
“While we didn’t get the win, we were happy with what we wanted to see.
“We understand we’ve go to do it for longer, and that’s been the simple message early in the week in terms of our review and even today in our presentation on St Kilda that we make sure we don’t lose sight of what we’re chasing.”
The Ross Lyon-coached Saints have the fifth-stingiest defence in the competition and have the ability to lockdown opposition teams’ ball movement.
“If they get it on their terms in the front half, I think 40 per cent of their scores come from front half turnovers, so we understand the defensive part of their game, it could be a low-scoring game,” Schofield said.
“For us, once again, it’s seeing the West Coast identity come through and we’ll chase our story in that game.
“What I mean by that is we understand what St Kilda are good at, but we’ve got to make sure we play our brand as well and not to neglect what their strengths are, and that’s their team defence, but not to panic on that either.”
It was a scrap at Optus Stadium last time the Eagles faced St Kilda in round 12, and the Saints effectively closed down firestarter Harley Reid after half-time.
Schofield declared the Eagles would be ready if Lyon sends a tagger to the rising star again.
“You would think they’ve probably got something up their sleeve, St Kilda,” he said.
“We’ve got to be prepared for that and we’ll try to prepare our players, whether it’s Harley or ‘TK’ (Tim Kelly), as best as possible.”
Schofield confirmed three forced changes for the match, with co-captain Liam Duggan (concussion protocols) and Tyler Brockman (ankle) joined by Jake Waterman (knee) on the sidelines.
Waterman will have the week off in a bid to settle his iliotibial band soreness, while Jack Petruccelle returns from a hamstring strain and Jai Culley has been called up for his second senior game of the year.
Culley was a standout last weekend as the WAFL Eagles upset West Perth, booting two goals from 21 disposals.
