Coach Welcome to West Coast: Andrew McQualter

[Ochre]

TBH, after tonight's lame effort, I wouldn't be against parting ways with him. Tonight's second half performance, and the other games where we have gone missing completely, has tilted me in favour of moving Mini on. I like the guy, but he is not getting the response needed. Limp efforts one after another - coach killers. Cox completely outcoached him.

Yep, McQualter made our list look ordinary, whilst Cox made Grundy, Gulden, Heeney, Warner, Blakey etc look as if they were a team full of All Australians.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

The system stands up with genuinely good teams for reasonable stretches of games. Our pressure game at its best is game winning stuff (minus a reliable connection inside 50, which is the most important next addition to make). Problem is, it lasts a quarter at most.

I don’t think you can play at 100% sprint and frenetic pressure for a game, let alone a season. We do need to add some ball control back in, and find out who we are when we don’t have the other team on the back foot.

But again, we also had quarters where our defensive zone looked great and teams got stuck on HBF for ages. Q1 tonight a great example.

When it falls apart, though, it falls apart fast.

If we held on against a few of Essendon (2 points), North (10 point), Richmond (2 points) or Adelaide (lol, 9 points) and we end with let’s say three wins…it’s all the same ultimately. No history but much of a muchness.

HT leads: Adelaide, Brisbane, Collingwood, Sydney, Melbourne, Port, St Kilda, Essendon

3QT leads: Adelaide, Brisbane, Port, St Kilda, North

You can see the blueprint they want to follow, it’s missing some key pieces (i50 entries are deplorable) but its best looks good even when we’re playing teams with much better talent on the park.

Needs a few early wins to avoid any media chatter of hot seats while they think of the next phantom trade they can make up, but yeah he’s going to be fine.

 

[Cuzz09]

Gonna be a lot of pressure on the club early in the season to get early wins otherwise it could just be a snowballing turd like this year

 

[Marlin01]

Gonna be a lot of pressure on the club early in the season to get early wins otherwise it could just be a snowballing turd like this year

Rd 1 at Gabba will be important then.

 

[InTheWings]

yeah nah Cox had the 2024 GF side prime midfield at his disposal and in the 2nd half they decided to play.

Haha! Cox had a team with around 18 players from last year's Grand Final.

Chalk and cheese.

 

[Goroyals22]

Rd 1 at Gabba will be important then.

I think that will be interchanged with round 1 at night on the Gold Coast

 

[Bender_]

Rd 1 at Gabba will be important then.

Fresh off a 6 hour flight, 11:10am 35 degrees with 135% humidity.

 

[Altum Volantes]

Rd 1 at Gabba will be important then.

We got the year off the usual SCG and Kardinia Park trips.

So there is that to look forward to as well.

 

[Balls In]

Jury still out for me. Significant improvement on Simpson but has fallen into a the trap of throwing good money after bad. Gibney, Hough and McCarthy is the backbone of an elite defence just play them together. Hewett looked average as the season progresses, Ryan well up the ground.. lots of players unsettled and out of position.

 

[Barrybran]

The system stands up with genuinely good teams for reasonable stretches of games. Our pressure game at its best is genuine game winning stuff (minus a reliable connection inside 50, which is the most important next addition to make). Problem is, it lasts a quarter at most.

I don’t think you can play at 100% sprint and frenetic pressure for a gamed, let alone a season. We do need to add some ball control back in, and find out who we are when we don’t have the other team on the back foot.

But again, we also had quarters where our defensive zone looked great and teams got stuck on HBF for ages. Q1 tonight a great example.

When it falls apart, though, it falls apart fast.

If we held on against a few of Essendon (2 points), North (10 point) Richmond (2 points) or Adelaide (lol, 9 points) and we end with let’s say three wins…it’s all the same ultimately.

HT leads: Adelaide, Brisbane, Collingwood, Sydney, Melbourne, Port, St Kilda, Essendon

3QT leads: Adelaide, Brisbane, Port, St Kilda, North

You can see the blueprint they want to follow, it’s missing some key pieces (i50 entries are deplorable) but its best looks good even when we’re playing teams with much better talent on the park.

Needs a few early wins to avoid any media chatter of hot seats while they think of the next phantom trade they can make up, but yeah he’s going to be fine.

I agree with everything here except the last line. Wins and losses will become a metric for next season but expectations for this should still be very low. We're likely still a bottom five, potentially still even bottom two side next year.

For me, next season will be about centre bounces and inside 50 differential. I still expect us to lose plenty of games because we will be undersized and inexperienced relative to our competition, but if we can improve through the middle of the ground, it'll set us up for 2027 and beyond.

Clarko, Voss and Lyon will be attracting heat before Mini does short of complete capitulation in the first two months of the year.

 

[Barrybran]

Gonna be a lot of pressure on the club early in the season to get early wins otherwise it could just be a snowballing turd like this year

No there won't. Short of us being put against the likes of Richmond and Essendon in the first few rounds, anyone expecting early wins is a moron.

 

[bzparkes]

Fresh off a 6 hour flight, 11:10am 35 degrees with 135% humidity.

Perfect conditions for footy.

 

[Woutizmoo]

TBH, after tonight's lame effort, I wouldn't be against parting ways with him. Tonight's second half performance, and the other games where we have gone missing completely, has tilted me in favour of moving Mini on. I like the guy, but he is not getting the response needed. Limp efforts one after another - coach killers. Cox completely outcoached him.

Post of the year.
Absolute peak 2025 wce bf bedwetting levels

 

[bzparkes]

Post of the year.
Absolute peak 2025 wce bf bedwetting levels

Frame it and hang it pride of place, it's that peak.

 

[ukurrie]

We do need to add some ball control back in, and find out who we are when we don’t have the other team on the back foot.

It looked like there were deliberate moments of this tonight where we played kick/mark across the backline to stretch the field. It felt like we were resting with the ball for a few chunks of 45 seconds or so.

 

[Monocle]

TBH, after tonight's lame effort, I wouldn't be against parting ways with him. Tonight's second half performance, and the other games where we have gone missing completely, has tilted me in favour of moving Mini on. I like the guy, but he is not getting the response needed. Limp efforts one after another - coach killers. Cox completely outcoached him.

 

[Tugga27]

The system stands up with genuinely good teams for reasonable stretches of games. Our pressure game at its best is genuine game winning stuff (minus a reliable connection inside 50, which is the most important next addition to make). Problem is, it lasts a quarter at most.

I don’t think you can play at 100% sprint and frenetic pressure for a gamed, let alone a season. We do need to add some ball control back in, and find out who we are when we don’t have the other team on the back foot.

But again, we also had quarters where our defensive zone looked great and teams got stuck on HBF for ages. Q1 tonight a great example.

When it falls apart, though, it falls apart fast.

If we held on against a few of Essendon (2 points), North (10 point) Richmond (2 points) or Adelaide (lol, 9 points) and we end with let’s say three wins…it’s all the same ultimately.

HT leads: Adelaide, Brisbane, Collingwood, Sydney, Melbourne, Port, St Kilda, Essendon

3QT leads: Adelaide, Brisbane, Port, St Kilda, North

You can see the blueprint they want to follow, it’s missing some key pieces (i50 entries are deplorable) but its best looks good even when we’re playing teams with much better talent on the park.

Needs a few early wins to avoid any media chatter of hot seats while they think of the next phantom trade they can make up, but yeah he’s going to be fine.

Some people still fail to realise, from last year we've lost Barrass, Gov and
Hedwards has gone down from defence.
Add the Reid boys, Waterman, OA and Yeo.

We struggled with those guys.
The media haven't really mentioned us losing our best 4 or 5 Players.

 

[Tugga27]

TBH, after tonight's lame effort, I wouldn't be against parting ways with him. Tonight's second half performance, and the other games where we have gone missing completely, has tilted me in favour of moving Mini on. I like the guy, but he is not getting the response needed. Limp efforts one after another - coach killers. Cox completely outcoached him.

Yeah, Cox is a genius.

Took Sydney from finishing on top to 10th.
FMD.

 

[rebel23]

TBH, after tonight's lame effort, I wouldn't be against parting ways with him. Tonight's second half performance, and the other games where we have gone missing completely, has tilted me in favour of moving Mini on. I like the guy, but he is not getting the response needed. Limp efforts one after another - coach killers. Cox completely outcoached him.

Agree... In over his head and it shows

 

[Hasselhough]

Has any coach had a worse list?

Come off it we have been a tall forward short for 2 weeks . This is a selection issue . Jack Williams just wasting away in the 2s

Bulldogs killed us in the air with 1 extra tall defender and same happened tonight to the point the lizzard went forward as he wasn't needed.

Just shanahan and the pleb bailey williams as our only tall targets .

It's one thing to say we have a poor list but selection blunders seem very common this year

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Doing a bit of poindexter work. This seems as good a thread as any.



Youngest team in footy, last year we were the seventh youngest:

• Average age of our selected teams this year was 24 years and seven months.
• Second youngest: 24yr 10mth (Essendon).
• AFL average: 25yr 10 mth.
• Oldest: 28yr 8mth (Collingwood).

Least experienced team in footy, last year we had the eighth fewest games played.

• West Coast: 76.6 games
• Second fewest games (pending all R24 games): 84.4 games (Richmond)
• AFL average: 104.4 games
• Most: 156.4 games (Collingwood)

The average margin was 10 points worse, but with four fewer wins that makes sense.

Excluding the wins and only looking at how we fared in losses, we're a goal worse this year but with a better percentage in losses (e.g. higher scores for us too). Precious little to read in here.

Interestingly, while you'd assume your team would get older and more experienced throughout the year as your list ages and gains +23 games each week, we've gone the opposite in both, in stark contrast to 2024. Trending younger and less experienced as the season went on.






I maintain that it's just a matter of patience, and that season long we have taken some big steps forward compared to the rudderless end to last season. Wins and losses will catch up, the process is right.

McQualter's biggest issue is not one of his own making - we're all just sick of this because we've been here longer than he has, but laying the foundations with a substantially younger side is a tick to me.

 

[Cuzz09]

Still paying for the sins of Simmo.

This is really his first full pre season in charge/decisions/selection

 

[eaglevision]

West Coast Eagles coach Andrew McQualter to leave no stone unturned in bid to find competitiveness in 2026

Andrew McQualter says he will go as far as using table tennis and handball games to teach his struggling side how to win.

www.perthnow.com.au

Table tennis and handball… FMD. Does he even realise that someone still has to lose?

How about building a proper fitness base so we don’t fade out in second halves and some tactile nous to halt momentum Andrew?

Recruiting blokes that can actually kick and maintain possession instead of turning it over would also go a long way.

 

[Andyy]

I thought he'd been there two years but a cursory google check says it's been one year.

So realistically any discussion about parting ways with him before mid 2027 is utterly insane, and even then if the team is showing signs of improvement that chat doesn't happen.

Mid 2028 if you want to be realistic and give him a proper go.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Rating Archer over Shanahands as a key forward to the extent that our greatest key forward since Josh Kennedy was playing in defence in the WAFL is a black mark against his record only a premiership will erase.