West Coast will approach the trade period and pre-season draft with an “aggressive” mindset as it seeks to compile a better squad for season 2017, according to Adam Simpson.
Although the Eagles senior coach vowed not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”, he thought the club had some obvious voids to fill throughout the off-season.
“I suppose you look at our last two years – 16 wins this year and 16 last year and a couple of really good finals performances and a couple of poor ones,” Simpson told 6PR’s Sports Team.
“I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. There are some really good signs there. It’s still positive, but we’ve just got to get better.”
West Coast’s foremost concern is its ruck stocks.
Nic Naitanui is unlikely to be available for a majority of next year’s home and away season due to his recent knee reconstruction and the club is yet to receive any updated information on the severity of Scott Lycett’s PCL injury.
“He’ll need surgery; that’s been needed for a while,” Simpson said of Lycett.
“He hasn’t done any damage playing with it. Unfortunately (on Thursday) his first tackle gave it a bit of a knock again. It rendered him a little bit lame around the ground, which was disappointing. The extent of the time he’ll be out we will find out after the surgery. I can’t give you any real clarity on that.”
The Eagles have been pleased with the efforts of journeyman recruit Jonathan Giles, but Simpson said the club needed more tall timber on its list to cover the crucial position.
“We’re going to have to plan around what we’ve got on our list, because at the moment we’re probably one or two ruckmen thin,” he said.
“With big Gilesy taking the load for the past couple of weeks, I think he’s been really good for us, but we’re going to need some support in the short term.”
While the club will be on the hunt for new talent in the coming weeks, Simpson will brainstorm new ways to upskill and motivate the club’s current crop of players.
The club’s coaching staff will pay particular attention to identifying how to extract the team’s best football at the pointy end of the season.
“Obviously on Thursday night we didn’t handle that as well as we should have and we were forced into some decisions that were a bit sloppy,” Simpson lamented.
“We’ve got to get some better performances out of all of our players in that space and big games, that’s for sure.
“That’s on me; I’ve got to get them better.”
