The Eagles' 38-point loss to North Melbourne on Sunday night was the club's sixth loss in seven matches.
Priddis, last year's best and fairest and one of the Eagles' few shining lights at present, said any suggestion that the new coach's methods and game-plan were to blame for the club's current malaise were well off the mark.
"Simmo has been fantastic," he said.
"It's the players. Last night it was effort, and that's a cop out. That's the most disappointing thing - for AFL footballers to rock up and dish that up, it doesn't matter who's coaching, it's purely the players."
Simpson gave his players very honest feedback in a lengthy discussion in the rooms after the match on Sunday night.
Priddis defended the North Melbourne premiership player's relaxed and calm demeanour, believing the players were hearing the messages clearly, but simply not delivering in response.
"Simmo's very honest," Priddis said.
"He's hard when he needs to be hard, and he'll give boys praise when he's required to. He knows how to read the playing group's attitude, and what's expected."
Simpson praised Priddis' efforts last night after the 29-year-old delivered a second straight 30-plus possession, two-goal game.
The coach called for others to follow his example - Priddis believes midfield depth and inconsistency are West Coast's Achilles heel at present.
"All the best sides have got great depth through the midfield and we're looking to improve on that area," Priddis said.
"It's probably one of our weaknesses at the moment. I think our backs and forward are holding up really well. But as a midfield group, we need to stand up and give more to the side.
"We need depth. We need seven or eight guys standing up and performing each week. We did that against Collingwood (in round 10), but it's just not consistent enough."
The Eagles need to bounce back quickly with a short turnaround before facing Hawthorn in Launceston on Saturday afternoon. Priddis said the team had to stick together.
"We're going to be united as we can be.
"We have a six-day turnaround into Hawthorn and we'll recover well, go through whatever vision we need to to get better, and look forward to that challenge."
