Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes has slammed West Coast for its “arrogance” following the weekend’s disastrous loss to Hawthorn.
The Eagles were crushed by 116 points in the battle of the AFL’s cellar-dwellers, the latest episode in the sad demise of one of the league’s most powerful clubs.
Just five years after their last premiership, the Eagles face a lengthy rebuild that Cornes predicted in 2021 before being shot down by then-Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett and senior coach Adam Simpson.
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“I’m talking about the arrogance of the club,” he told Nine’s Footy classifieds.
“They’ve had their heads in the sand for too long. Anyone who watches football (can) see that’s where West Coast is going to end up.”
“Lack of draft picks, overpaying players, loyalty to players who just don’t play.”
Cornes said that while not all of the Eagles’ problems lie with Simpson, whose future grows bleaker with each loss, he should own up to the lack of established standards.
“He got his players off too easily, they were unfit, they were overweight and that’s the result you get when you lose 116 points to a team 18 on the ladder,” he said.
“The amount of times they (Hawthorn’s players) were breaking tackles and waltzing in, it was honestly like a domestic trial yesterday in February and they should be ashamed of themselves.
“I’m sick of the West Coast excuses. “We’re injured,” well, your three-year record speaks volumes for more than injuries. This is not an injury, this is an effort, and this is a team that has. essentially refused.
“Adam Simpson, it’s not solely his fault, obviously there are other reasons why it led to this, but ultimately he’s going to pay the price.
“He won’t last until the end of the year, he can’t. “No coach in history has survived four wins and 30 odd losses in two and a half years.”
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The Age’s Caroline Wilson suggested the Eagles should look ahead to arrest their slide as a football club in recent years.
“They don’t listen to anyone outside their four walls, now they have to start,” he said Footy classifieds.
“They’ve done it once before, when the drugs scandal happened, and they’ve been coming to Melbourne every year, selling themselves to the media, trying to integrate into the wider football scene.
“For a long time they were a new football club and now it’s happened again.”
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