The depth of the West Coast Eagles list will be further tested this week, with another senior player - utility Mark Nicoski - joining a growing injury list.
Nicoski’s shoulder popped out during the third quarter of Sunday’s loss to Richmond and he will now be out of action for at least the next few weeks.
On the back of a disappointing loss to the Tigers, the injury to the versatile Nicoski means that up to seven players, who would probably be in the club’s starting 22, will not be available this week.
The prognosis on young midfielder Tom Swift, who returned to Perth from Melbourne before Sunday’s game against Richmond because of illness, has not been determined. Club medicos are closely monitoring his position.
With Nicoski and Swift casualties from the weekend, they join star on-baller Daniel Kerr, captain Darren Glass, hard-nosed midfielder Adam Selwood, utility player Sam Butler, and young midfielders Luke Shuey and Chris Masten as first choice players unlikely to be available.
While acknowledging that growing casualty list, senior coach John Worsfold said that regardless of the players who represented the club, the performance on Sunday was well below club expectations.
“It was a poor performance and totally unacceptable,” Worsfold said today. “Regardless of who represents our club in any given match we expect a stronger commitment to the game plan and to each other.
“In the aftermath of the game, the players have discussed the circumstances of the loss to Richmond.
“The knew it fell well short of the levels we expect. We use a range of criteria to judge the team’s performance and we were down on all of those measures.
“The players recognise that they did not represent the club as we demand, we have identified some key areas where we were deficient and we will now work on those to ensure we are better this week against the Western Bulldogs.
“We all know we have to improve and in the next six days will focus on vast improvements against one of the quality teams in the AFL. It is an exciting opportunity against a top four side.”
Of the players on the injury list, Masten is likely to be available for selection this week, but will probably need to build match fitness with his WAFL club, East Fremantle having spent six weeks on the sidelines with a knee injury sustained against Fremantle in round six.