WEST Coast Eagles assistant coach Peter Sumich has stopped short of calling his side the worst in the AFL and has urged members to stick with the club.
Many fans left Subiaco Oval early on Saturday night as the Eagles’ 135-point drubbing at the hands of Geelong became too much to stomach.
But Sumich said the club could not dwell on the loss, the worst home defeat in its 21 year history, and suggested the majority of Saturday night’s side would have a chance to redeem themselves against Hawthorn on Friday night.
“You can react to a game like that and drop half a dozen players,” Sumich said on Monday. “You can drop the whole 18 but where does that get you?
"I think a lot of sides in the past who have got beatings pretty much as we did, don't go and change the whole 18, don't go and change 10 or 12, they might change four or sometimes none."
Sumich suggested the side's 2006 premiership players, 14 of which played on Saturday night, were struggling for confidence and adjusting to the club's new situation.
"They're adjusting to certain things that are going on around the club and whether that brings them back a scale before they go forward again, that might be the case," he said.
"There are careers that will be looked at. We will give players a fair go until the end of the year and then yeah, careers will be on the line at the end of the year and we will make decisions," Sumich said.
The media reaction to the record loss has been savage in Perth, and talkback radio has been an exclusive forum for furious West Coast members, but Sumich said both the club and its members needed to back the players if the side was going to regain its confidence.
"You've got to back your players in, and that's what we're doing," he said. "I know the media won't, but we'll back our players in.
"That's the way it is, we've got to have confidence in our players. That's football.
"They've got to have confidence in what they're trying to do out on the footy field and what [senior coach John Worsfold] and the match committee are putting in place - which they do.
"You go through some hard times and we are at the moment and it's a matter of people sticking with us, especially the members."