Two-time premiership winner David King has questioned whether Eagles players were “really invested” during Sunday’s record loss to the Gold Coast to start 2025.
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The Eagles were smashed at the contest and managed just one centre clearance to half time – by then the match was essentially over as the Suns then ran riot to rack up their biggest win in club history.
Statistics show West Coast were -25 in contested possessions, -17 clearances, -23 inside 50s and -45 points on the scoreboard at the main break.
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“It made me question if West Coast were really invested. Like is Tim Kelly really invested?” he asked on First Crack.
“Is he really at the knife’s edge of wanting to compete in the clearance situation?
“I think he finishes the day with minimal touches, minimal really involved. You hardly noticed he was out there.
“Harley Reid, he wanted to fight more than he wanted to play footy.
“It just was embarrassing for them at stages. And they are well serviced in there. The (contest) numbers were just off the charts.
“They got put to the sword pretty easy.
“There’s no excuse for -17 clearances. They’ve got good senior bodies in there – that’s an embarrassment.”
“Bitterly disappointed” West Coast coach Andrew McQualter says it’s clear the Eagles have “work to do” after their record-breaking loss.
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Describing the 87-point defeat as a “really difficult day”, McQualter struggled to find answers speaking post-match.
“Footy is a pretty simple game – when you go -40 odd in the contest, you’re just not going to be able to compete,” he said.
“Right now, it’s incredibly deflating.
“It’s a funny comp though – there’s four teams probably feeling like me, like us right now.
“It’s not the way we want to play today. It’s not the team we want to be.
“We’ll go away and get to work.
“We’ve just got to find answers, find solutions.
“Ultimately, we need to be better.
“It’s difficult right now for me to portray optimism. Clearly it’s one game. We’ve got 22 to go.”
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Eagles recruit Matt Owies agreed it was a “tough day” for the club, despite the promise of a new era under McQualter.
And it won’t get any easier for the club who now faces the most daunting trip in footy – Brisbane at the Gabba.
“Where the group is at, we just need to get better every day,” he told foxfooty.com.au
“It’s probably pretty clear there’s a lot of facets of the game we need to improve on.
“It doesn’t get easier going up against Brisbane at the Gabba, but the best thing is a week’s a long time in footy. We get to put on a jumper and play in the spirit our fans are hopefully proud of.
“The bare basics is we need to compete at the contest and we got smashed in that today – that’s on us players. Bringing the contest shape and the hunt of the footy, we got outhunted today.
“The result is definitely not what we want … As a competitor, you always think you can come back.
“There’s a lot to work on. That’s what we will do this week and all year basically to bridge the gap between us and the rest of the competition.”
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