The West Coast Eagles‘ woes have continued after suffering another heavy defeat, this time at the hands of the Tigers in Perth on Friday night.
Following a seven-goal to one opening term in favour of the Tigers, the Eagles were blown off Optus Stadium from start to finish before going by 109 points, 8.8 (56) to 25.15 (165).
The result is the third straight week where the Eagles have gone down by more than 60 points following heavy losses against Sydney and Port Adelaide.
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With the match virtually out of reach at half-time trailing by 63 points, it left former Collingwood star and coach Nathan Buckley shocked.
Buckley said Eagles coach Adam Simpson would be lost for words on how to address his side.
“I’ve got no doubt the coach would be as shell shocked as anyone,” said Buckley on Fox Footy at half-time.
“You can only ask and put it on your players for a couple of weeks in a row and not get a response before you go, where do I go from here?
“Right now at half-time as he’s walking down to present to the players and have a chat, he’s going, where do I go from here?”
After starting the opening rounds of the 2022 season with several players coming in and out the side due to health and safety protocols, the Eagles were again without several key players, but to injury.
The likes of Oscar Allen, Nic Naitanui, Dom Sheed, Elliot Yeo and Tom Cole were all unavailable.
Meanwhile, Richmond rested veteran Trent Cotchin, while superstar Dustin Martin was still out of action due to personal reasons.
Brisbane legend Jonathan Brown said the time has passed for the Eagles to list any excuses on Western Australia’s COVID-19 situation, with rival club Fremantle currently in the top four.
“The problem for West Coast, you can blame COVID all you like, but there’s a team in the same city as you that have been in the same circumstances in the Fremantle Dockers, who are looking magnificent,” Brown said on Fox Footy after the game.
“Yes their demographics are a little bit different, but we can’t just put it as unfair on the Western Australian teams. We’ve got to leave that behind.”
Richmond dominated just about every category, winning the inside 50s 65-36, disposals 378-359, clearances 34-30 and hit-outs 45-15, per AFL.com stats.
Star forward Tom Lynch starred for the Tigers with seven goals in game number 200, while midfielder Shai Bolton also hit the scoreboard with three to go along with 30 possessions.
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