West Coast coach Adam Simpson has labelled a newspaper’s reporting “a bit grubby” after it released a bombshell story about players’ diminishing faith in him.
Following last Sunday’s 61-point home belting at the hands of Hawthorn, a report by The West Australian surfaced on Thursday, declaring a number of Eagles players wanted Simpson gone from Lathlain at year’s end.
On Friday, prior to his club’s departure to Melbourne for its Sunday meeting with the Demons, Simpson addressed reporters and was quizzed for his reaction to the report.
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“I haven’t (read the report), but I’ve heard about it,” Simpson stated on Friday afternoon.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s not uncommon either. I think it (players becoming disgruntled) happens all the time, to be honest.
“(I’ll) take it for what it is and move on. I won’t be checking everyone’s phones, put it that way.”
Asked if he believed he had the support of the playing group, Simpson said: “Yeah, I am.
“Despite whatever’s in the paper today, like I said, we’ve got 15-20 players that don’t get a game every week, we’ve probably got 10 players who will be off the list at the end of the year, so there’s always people disgruntled — it’s just part of the job.
“Can’t apologise for trying to get better, but I think I’ve still got the players.”
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Simpson, who is into his 11th season as West Coast’s coach, expressed confidence in his claim that his players were still on his side.
“I’m with them every day,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a tough week this week. Last week, we all had a bit of optimism after the Bombers game.
“I just don’t ride the rollercoaster like the media. We’ve got a job to do, it’s a really difficult job at the moment, and nothing’s changed from the start of the year about what we want to get better at.
“It felt like we took a step backwards from what has been a reasonably positive season.”
Simpson said while he hasn’t yet addressed the situation with his players, he plans to before they depart for Victoria.
“I’ll talk to the boys at the airport today,” he said. “It’ll take the sting out of it, because I’m not on a witch hunt — it’s not that at all.
“It’s a little bit grubby from the paper’s point of view, but that’s fine — you guys are doing your job and I’ll just do mine.”
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The veteran mentor said he had no say in the leaking of such information, going on to play down the severity of the situation.
“Well, I don’t think this is a unique situation, but the fact it gets out like that — I can’t control that,” Simpson said.
“I think you’re overplaying it a little bit. Just because you’re seeing three players have sent text messages to each other — it’s our lives, we deal with it every day.
“I’ll just talk to the players today and we’ll try and unite and be better on the weekend.”
Since the start of the 2022 season, the Eagles are 8-51 in 59 games.
The report comes to light after West Coast great Peter Sumich slammed his former club on RSN Breakfast on Wednesday morning.
“We’re a little bit frustrated over here at the moment, because it’s the same old same but nothing’s getting done, and it’s been going on for three years — not 12 months, not 24 months — this is three years now,” he said.
“It’s not personal against Adam, it’s all about the club and the club getting better, and sometimes you have to move on people to get the club better — and I think West Coast is at that stage, now, where they’ve really got to seriously look at what they’re doing.”