Waalitj Marawar’s (West Coast) 99-point embarrassment at the hands of Kuwarna (Adelaide) has seen fans unleash a wave of fury, with coach Adam Simpson in the gun.
The Eagles were belted from start to finish by a classy Crows unit on Sunday afternoon at Adelaide Oval, giving up seven first-quarter goals, four in the opening 11 minutes, on the way to a drubbing.
Harley Reid was one of the few shining lights for Waalitj Marawar with the performance coming as a surprise after their rousing triumph over Narrm (Melbourne) at Optus Stadium last week.
After two woeful seasons in 2022 and 2023, culminating in just the second wooden spoon in club history, the fans were quick to forget the triumph and blasted the club’s leadership for Sunday’s defeat.
“When the coach isn’t worried about away form, how does he expect the players to have a crack,” The West Australian reader John Baggetta wrote on social media.
Eustace Murphy added: “Is there any captain as uninspiring as Liam Duggan?”
Earlier in the week, Simpson said the Eagles were not yet at the stage of rebuilding, where they could put the microscope on their away form.
“I still think we’re working on the first phase, really. Our home form has been better than away, so that’s good, but we’ve won three games,” Simpson said.
“It’s been a good week for the footy club, and we’ve had some good performances, but we’ve got so much work to do. I don’t think we’ve mastered everything just yet.
“Our away form has been terrible. Our best game was (against) Sydney at Gather Round. Outside of that, it’s been a completely different look than at home.
“One of our goals is to be more competitive when we travel, and this week’s a good opportunity.”
The sentiment has not landed well with the fans in the wake of the Adelaide loss many have labelled it “pathetic”.
“Need to start from the ground up. Enough of the “patriotism “for older players and fanciful fair wells for them. New Coach. New players. Nothing else will work,” James Papas said.
“Below AFL standard,” Dave Mutton wrote in response to The West Australian’s three-word analysis.
Shauno Davis was confused by the side’s efforts.
“I can’t understand it. We have 10 premiership players and Harley Reid, and we still can’t seem to win!” he wrote.
However, some fans pointed to the result as proof of the difficulty of travelling for interstate teams.
“It adds more ammunition to the travel argument. It can’t be denied that it has an impact,” Lesley Thornton wrote on Facebook.
Ben Dearden added: “If only they all flew business class, might have won.”