A banged up West Coast has been praised for one of their “bravest” performances as up to seven players were injured in the Western Derby loss to Fremantle.
The Eagles lost captain Luke Shuey and Jeremy McGovern (hamstrings) in the second quarter before the injury toll really ramped up in the second half.
Jamie Cripps was taken to hospital after breaking his ankle in a horror moment when his foot got trapped under Fremantle skipper Alex Pearce.
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Alex Witherden (concussion) couldn’t return while Liam Ryan bravely tried to return after he injured his knee in a marking contest.
“It wasn’t even the walking wounded! They were just the wounded! No one was walking,” Fox Footy’s David King said on First Crack.
“I know Fremantle blew it away late … but I take my hat off to the Eagles. It was the bravest performances we’ve seen in a while.”
Speaking after the match, a proud Simpson praised the resilience of his side who closed to within two points early in the last quarter despite being five players down.
“We’re probably going to lose six or seven players from today,” he said.
“I think I said to them at three quarter time, in juniors you don’t want to come off, well that’s happening this quarter.
“We didn’t win so we’re not high fiving each other, but there’s something a bit deeper today than winning.”
Eagle Sam Petrevski-Seton described the efforts of his teammates as “really gutsy” after they essentially played without a fit player on the bench for a quarter of footy.
“To see (so many teammates) go down, you have a bit of doubt,” he told Fox Footy.
“But you’ve got to quickly move on and try and keep your game up to scratch as well.
“It was more how quickly mentally can we get back to focusing on the game and performing.
“It is inspiring – the resilience of 18 men to go out there and play. That last hour of footy was really tough and tiring on the body. I can say I was cramping towards the end there the amount of running I did.”
Petrevski-Seton said players knew they were limited on the bench but were determined to fight on.
“We grit our teeth and showed a really hard work rate to compete against them with 18 men,” he said.
“There was effort right through to the end.
“We wanted to keep knuckling down and doing the little things right – especially in the contest.
“That just shows we aren’t too far away – even with just 18 men on the field.
“41 points was not ideal as an end result for us … But with 18 men it was pretty hard and they just outrun us in the end.”
Simpson said he remained hopeful Elliot Yeo was “a chance” to return for next week’s clash with Melbourne while King said this latest injury crisis would show what’s waiting in the wings at West Coast.
“Maybe this forces Adam Simpson to turn the page a little bit on some of these older guys… and we see what’s underneath,” he said.
