Football has always been about the survival of the fittest, but Adam Simpson reckons the best conditioned teams could get off to a fast start when the 2020 premiership season resumes next week.
Speaking to the media at Mineral Resources Park today while staff loaded equipment into trucks ahead of the team’s relocation to the Gold Coast, the senior coach said he would be keeping a watchful eye on how West Coast’s opponents tried to get the most out of their players during shorter games.
Due to the possibility of having to play multiple games per week due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AFL cut quarters from 20 minutes plus time on to 16 minutes plus time on ahead of round one.
And although it appears games will be fixtured as per usual moving forward, the league has elected to keep the reduced game time policy in place for the remainder of the year in case circumstances change.
Simpson expected rivals to implement different strategies to exploit the change, but he felt the fittest teams would still find a way to score irrespective of coaches’ creative tactics.
“I think clubs will innovate in the early part of the year, whether that’s with how they do their rotations because there’s less time and more opportunity to rotate,” Simpson said.
“I don’t really believe less rotations will increase scoring. I think the fitter you are the more you might score these days.
“With selection, I suppose it sits around the ruck selection and what you do. Any team that’s played two rucks in the past could probably get away with one.
“I’m sure there’s some stuff there that I haven’t thought about at all that we’ll see over the weekend.
“I think after a month of footy you will know what it’s looking like.”
Simpson said the Eagles would have one final tune up under lights at Mineral Resources Park tonight before they flew out to Queensland on Monday.
He said the players and staff were excited to settle into their ‘home away from home’ at the Royal Pines Resort.
“We’re ready to go. It’s going to be a bit of an experience, but we’re looking forward to it,” Simpson said.
“We are used to travelling; we are used to playing on the road and we’re used to being together a lot, probably just not this long.
“A lot of the guys won’t be taking their families, which is understandable with the lives we’ve all got back here. We’ve got to find a way to make it enjoyable as well as winning some games of footy.
“The guys are in a good space on the track and there’s really good momentum.
“The only thing we haven’t got yet is a return date, which I know the AFL are working really hard on. We should find that out in the next week or so.”
West Coast will resume its season against Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Saturday, June 13.
