West Coast coach Andrew McQualter has revealed he studied old footage of Chris Fagan’s press conferences in a bid to learn from the Brisbane Lions’ successful rebuild.
McQualter sees similarities between his Eagles – wooden spooners in two of the past three seasons – and the Lions that were at rock bottom when Fagan took over almost a decade ago.
Fagan has famously turned Brisbane into a powerhouse, with seven straight finals series, three consecutive grand final appearances and back-to-back flags under their belt.
After a 15.9 (99) to 9.13 (67) loss to Melbourne on Sunday, McQualter admitted his younger players had bitten off more than they could chew with their ball movement at times.
The second-year coach conceded “bad turnovers” had been costly, but then gave a nod to Fagan’s thoughts from 2017 about the risks and rewards on offer.
“It’s fascinating what he talks about,” McQualter said.
“He talks about Hugh McCluggage and (how) he’s just got to keep going after his kicks because that’s how you become a better player.
“And we’re not in too dissimilar position to what Brisbane were when Fagan started, so we have to find our balance between what the right options are in offence.
“We don’t want to have turnovers that become really hard to defend, and we had a few of those particularly in the first quarter today.
“But we’ve got to keep letting these guys grow and find their boundaries.
“The more they play, the more confidence they’ll get and the more they’ll understand each other, so we’ve got to be careful we don’t put a muzzle on them too quickly.”
McQualter said his players’ confidence would build through evidence when their bold play came off, and felt there would be natural improvement in their decision-making.
He noted there were strong signs from first-year players including Cooper Duff-Tytler, Willem Duursma and Josh Lindsay against Melbourne.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing these guys and hopefully they’ll continue to grow,” McQualter said.
A sixth straight loss left West Coast (2-7) sitting 15th ahead of a home clash with GWS next Sunday.
The Eagles will be without unlucky defender Harry Edwards, who faces an uncertain future after sustaining a third concussion this year.
Edwards was split open by an accidental elbow from teammate Elliot Yeo before quarter-time and was quickly ruled out.
McQualter is also bracing for bad news from further assessment of Jamie Cripps’ knee injury after the veteran forward was hurt in a WAFL game over the weekend.
