Adam Simpson hasn’t decided whether he wants to coach the Eagles one final time this Sunday, with one journalist describing the club’s dealings as “shambolic”.
In an awkward moment during Tuesday’s press conference, Simpson declared “we haven’t made that call just yet” on if he would coach West Coast against Brisbane at Optus Stadium, despite chief executive Don Pyke’s insistence.
Simpson’s parting of ways with the Eagles on Tuesday has understandably drawn vast reaction from the AFL landscape.
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‘We haven’t made that call yet Pykey’ | 01:01
Speaking on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle, Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph explained Simpson’s thought process and provided some behind-the-scenes clarity.
“Adam Simpson simply was not prepared to put his family through that hellish existence of the 10 weeks of last season if he was zero chance to coach on next year — that’s as simply as I can put it,” Ralph said on Tuesday evening.
“I’ve just spoken to his long-term manager in Shane Casley — he says when Simpson and Don Pyke met at 4pm yesterday, Simpson said to Pyke: ‘Is there any chance I can fulfil my contract? 1 per cent, 10 per cent, 20 per cent?’ Pyke told him plain: ‘There is no chance that you will go on’ — and so from then on in, that fight in Simpson was extinguished.”
With regards to leading the Eagles against the Lions at home for one last time, Ralph passed on Casley’s thoughts.
“He has drawn up a list of pros and cons about coaching a farewell game this week against Brisbane,” Ralph said.
“As Casley says, it is not his way, it is not what he’s interested in — he’s certainly been pushed by senior figures to say: ‘this is about the club, this is about a farewell.’
“So, Jarrod Schofield will be the interim — either the week after or potentially this week. I hope he agrees (to coach a farewell game), I think he’s favouring that, and I hope he gets the farewell that Nathan Buckley got that was absolutely perfect.”
‘There’s guys who’ll say thank god’ | 01:29
Herald Sun journalist Glenn McFarlane criticised West Coast’s inability to “get their ducks in a row” and figure out whether Simpson would coach this weekend.
“Let’s be honest, this looks shambolic. They had 18 hours the club to get their ducks in a row in terms of whether ‘Simmo’ was going to coach a farewell game or not — how could they get it so horribly wrong?” McFarlane asked.
Code Sports journalist Mark Duffield dialled in to provide his take.
“There’s still no answer on that (whether Simpson will coach one more time); I texted Don Pyke a couple of hours ago and he said that he doesn’t expect an answer for a couple of days — to be honest, I hope he doesn’t,” Duffield told Fox Footy.
“He comes from the old ‘Shinboner Spirit’ days — I think he knows that when you’re done, you’re done. I suspect it wouldn’t sit that well with Adam to go and do that and do that lap of honour at Optus Stadium this weekend against Brisbane.”
Kennett & Caro CLASH in heated debate | 01:09
Duffield also ran through some of the top contenders to put their hands up for West Coast’s now-vacant role.
“History says that the replacement coach comes from the senior assistant crop at one of the successful clubs,” he said. “Right now, Dean Cox is at Sydney who are first (on the ladder), and Ash Hansen is at Carlton who are second, and Jaymie Graham is at Fremantle who are third — so there’s a happy coincidence for the people at those clubs … you’d like to see them run a process.
“There are others — Daniel Giansiracusa has got to be worth a chat, Andrew McQualter’s handled himself pretty well in the senior post temporarily before. I think the other thing is, if you’re a club like West Coast, you’ve got to have a throw at the stumps and (at least) make a call to the Chris Scotts and the John Longmires of the world before you move on to getting an untried assistant.”
Source Agencies
