Eagles coach Simpson backs Jack Darling to the hilt

West Coast coach Adam Simpson has thrown his full help behind Jack Darling, saying even an injury-free record would not have satisfied him to drop the premiership ahead this week.

The Seventeenth-placed Eagles (1-7) are battling one of many worst damage crises the AFL has ever seen, with no less than 16 gamers at present unavailable.

Former skipper Shannon Hurn is the most recent to hitch the record after succumbing to an adductor damage, ruling him out of Friday night time’s conflict with Gold Coast at Optus Stadium.

Jai Culley will bear surgical procedure after tearing his ACL in final week’s loss to Richmond, whereas stars Nic Naitanui, Jeremy McGovern, Liam Ryan, Luke Shuey, Jamie Cripps and Elliot Yeo are nonetheless injured.

Darling has kicked 10.11 from eight video games this season with a major chunk of these objectives coming late in video games when the outcome was already determined.

West Coast nice Peter Sumich was so scathing of Darling’s current kind he advised the Eagles ought to drop him even when it meant they would not have sufficient match gamers to discipline a sub.

However Simpson is throwing his full help behind Darling and hopes the 30-year-old will bounce again to kind in opposition to the Suns on Friday night time.

“It is not the primary time he is labored by way of some kind. He hasn’t allow us to down too usually,” Simpson instructed reporters on Thursday.

“We’ll preserve backing him in, as a lot because the criticism is there.

“We’ll simply preserve working with him. We have got his again.

“If we may have everybody accessible, we might nonetheless look to again him in.

“He is one good recreation away from turning it round. He is a veteran, he is aware of the way to do it.”

West Coast chairman Paul Fitzpatrick penned an open letter to the membership’s followers this week, revealing consultants are working with the membership to assist look into the damage disaster.

The Eagles, who returned a 2-20 file final season, are nonetheless within the early phases of what is shaping as much as be an extended and painful rebuild.

Simpson, who’s contracted till 2025, is set to guide the membership out the opposite facet, and says huge modifications have already been made in a bid to realize future success.

“It is no fast repair. We preserve getting dealt some fairly huge blows,” Simpson stated.

“Profitable by 10 objectives this week will not change what occurs on Monday.

“It is nonetheless not a fast repair. We have nonetheless set to work by way of getting as a lot expertise as we will by way of the door, by way of the draft, by way of the buying and selling interval.

“We will need to have made 10 to 12 modifications (to the workers) earlier than this season – new GM, new dietician, new power coach, new improvement coach, new head of improvement.

“That tells us the trail has began.

“We wish to win, we wish to get that feeling again, but it surely will not change that route (we’re taking) in the long run.”

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