WEST Coast captain Luke Shuey says responsibility for the club's thumping loss to Sydney rests squarely on the players, conceding some may not be up to turning their horror season around and that senior Eagles are not pulling their weight.
The Eagles plummeted to a new low on Saturday, and their heaviest defeat in club history, as the Swans became the first AFL team to score 200 points in a game since 2011.
The bottom-placed Eagles have now lost their past 12 matches to stand at 1-13 for the season with a percentage of just 47.3.
Shuey says he became emotional when he addressed the playing group after the loss, adding he hoped the players were hurting.
"You just hope blokes recognise the enormity of how embarrassing that was," Shuey told The West Australian. "That's probably more important than actually learning stuff from a footy point of view.
"You'd hope that the flight home is a long, long one. And you hope we're all hurting, and I think we are.
"We've got some guys who might not be up to it. We've got some senior guys who might not be carrying their weight. And we've got plenty of young guys who were still learning.
"As senior guys we need to give them a better environment to learn in on game day. So we're all together as a playing group."
The heat has come on head coach Adam Simpson following yet another heavy defeat, but Shuey says the 2018 premiership coach and his staff are not to blame.
"I don't know what you can do from the box on a night like that," Shuey said.
"The way the coaches presented to us during the week about what we need to do was spot on and we just didn't execute.
"We take full blame for what's happening, there's no doubt.
"Our coaches have proven that they can coach well over the years, they're not the issue. We can put an end to that conversation."
Simpson did not speak to the players straight after Saturday’s loss, but Shuey did.
"I just spoke to the boys then and got a little bit emotional talking about how much the club means to a lot of us," Shuey said.
"It doesn't matter what we've achieved in the past, whether it's premierships or how many games you’ve played, nights like that hurt."
West Coast has been hit hard by injury throughout much of the season and only had two AFL-listed players available to play in its second-tier WAFL side.
Veterans Shannon Hurn and Jamie Cripps are expected to be available to face St Kilda next week, though Jeremy McGovern is likely to miss as the Eagles are again forced to call on their younger players.
