NOT every game of footy is one after which you’d race home to watch the replay and the best description of West Coast’s 10-point win over Carlton at the MCG on Saturday evening came directly from Eagles coach, Adam Simpson.
“It was a grind game,” he said, one in which the Eagles were happy to bank the points, wing their way home, soothe some aching bones and prepare for the history-making derby clash with Fremantle, the first at Optus Stadium, next Sunday.
But there was some significance for the Eagles nevertheless. They’re two from two in Victoria so far this year and they snapped a three-game losing streak at the MCG.
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“In the context of the year it's huge for us,” he said.
“We’ve tried to develop a different way of going about things, the list has changed a little bit. We’ve lost some kids in the last few weeks which is disappointing, but we’re still establishing who we are and I thought that while today wasn’t pretty, it was a good grind.”
“I’m as proud of them today as I was last week and anyone who thinks it was a poor performance has to look at Carlton, the resistance they showed and the resistance we showed.”
The Eagles are gradually exorcising the narrow Domain Stadium out of their system, what with the regular training sessions at their soon-to-be-home-base at Lathlain Park and home games at Optus, both of which are rounder than their skinny former home ground at Subiaco.
Simpson said the Eagles have had bigger concerns when they travel, such as strength and intensity at the contest rather than the shape of the ground, but did admit getting to train on the Grand Final venue the day before the game and then walking off it 24 hours later with four points in their pocket was a bonus.
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“We want to play well here,” he said.
“We (only) get two games this year here, so to get a win at the MCG, we’ll take it, lick our wounds and keep going.”
With arguably the biggest week of the home and away season ahead, Simpson chose not to elaborate when asked which of his players were sore. It had been a light week at training with a focus on freshening the team up, and it might explain the final margin when at one stage the Eagles looked headed for a very comfortable win.
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Where the Eagles did have the edge was the time-on period of each quarter. Carlton started the quarters well, but the bigger and more experienced Eagles finished them more strongly with eight of their 10 goals coming in red time. Given their profligacy in front of goal (10.19 for the match), the strong time-on periods might have helped them dodge a bullet.
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“Being more mature as a collective has helped and sustaining a full quarter is really important. They really rushed us at the start of quarters, but we finished off pretty well, in the second and third quarters.
“They were really important five minutes,” Simpson said.
