Eagles thrilled with win but September remains a pipe dream
Eagles coach thrilled with win but concedes finals are a pipedream
PLAYING finals footy isn't West Coast coach Adam Simpson's focus for the remainder of the season, describing the likelihood of the Eagles making the eight as a "fair stretch".
A 31-point win over Adelaide at Adelaide Oval kept the club's hopes mathematically alive and, depending on other results this weekend, West Coast could finish round 19 just a win from eighth place.
Led by Andrew Gaff, Josh Kennedy, Luke Shuey and Matt Priddis, the Eagles were simply too good all over the ground for the hapless Crows, whose own finals aspirations were dealt another blow.
But Simpson said that qualifying for a finals campaign was highly unlikely and that he was more concerned with building form ahead of 2015.
"I think it's a fair stretch. We've just got to keep winning, we play Collingwood in eight days," Simpson said.
"We're not looking at [finals] as a goal, we want to finish the year off well to give us some momentum for next year.
"We wanted to win today and we'll have a crack next week and see how we go."
The Eagles moved the ball as well as they have all season on Saturday, leading to high-quality inside 50s and a lopsided 'marks on lead' count.
Kennedy took nine marks on the lead, taking his side's total to 17 for the game; Adelaide managed just four.
Simpson said he had urged his players to move the ball bravely and quickly.
"We've been working on it a lot, we've been working on moving the ball a little bit quicker and the main message today was to just be brave and play on the edge," he said.
"We've been working a lot on just the basic fundamentals…sticking your head over the ball, a bit cleaner, it worked for us today."