West Coast Eagles coach Adam Simpson has leapt to the defence of under-fire midfielder Elliot Yeo, calling Kane Cornes‘ criticism of him “irrelevant”.
Yeo is one of a number of Eagles veterans to have slow starts to the season after testing positive to COVID-19, with the 28-year-old managing just 19 combined disposals through two games.
The two-time All-Australian’s horror start to the year continued in the Eagles’ loss to Port Adelaide last weekend, when he was subbed off early after suffering a concussion.
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Yeo’s struggles through the early part of the season did not go unnoticed by Cornes, who said the Eagles star “looked out of shape” in his two appearances in 2022.
When presented with Cornes’ comments, Simpson did not hesitate in defending his star man.
“To be honest I haven’t read anything that Kane Cornes has written or heard anything he’s said, so irrelevant is what comes to my mind about what his opinion is,” the 2018 premiership-winning coach said.
“Elliot Yeo has not played football for the last two-and-a-half years, really. He’s had osteitis (pubis), he had a calf injury, he got knocked out at the start of the second quarter, he’s played two games this year.
“I think that’s a little bit unfair if that’s the criticism on him. He’s played 12-13 games in the last 40. He’s working really hard. I’ll back him and it’s still irrelevant.”
Yeo is far from the only veteran Eagle to struggle through the early part of the season, and Simpson was quick to point out the obstacles his side has been required to face.
“Going into pre-season for us, we were really happy with our fitness. I think we had 17 PBs (personal bests) in our time trials and we were in really good shape,” Simpson said.
“We’ve had 20-plus injuries since then and 23 players have had COVID and we’re working really hard to get that fitness back. Absolutely, I can understand the criticism but we’re working really hard to get as fit as we can and as healthy as we can.”
Simpson’s struggling team’s task to turn its season around gets no easier in round seven when it hosts Richmond at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Friday night.