West Coast coach Andrew McQualter has declared Sydney have his team a football lesson after the Eagles were handed their fifth-largest defeat in club history during a horror night at Optus Stadium, but denied his players got ahead of themselves after enjoying recent wins.
The Eagles had no answers to the dominant Swans, losing 24.19 (163) to 4.11 (35). West Coast entered the game with optimism after they beat North Melbourne and Port Adelaide in the last two matches, but were powerless to stop Sydney.
McQualter said the gap between his young team and the Swans was clear.
“I don’t think the players got ahead of themselves. I think Sydney played incredibly well today,” he said.
“We had plenty of plans in place, but we were not able to stop them. I thought their speed, their zip, their reaction was at a completely different level to ours, and probably different to what our level has been the last few weeks.
“To be fair, I think our group’s been up for a couple of weeks, and really riding some emotion. We didn’t get carried away at all internally, but there’s some emotion to our players with winning a few games, and it looked to just take its toll a little bit. We didn’t quite have the same energy we’ve been playing with.”
West Coast started poorly for the fourth game in a row, but this time, they couldn’t find ways to drag themselves back into the match.
Isaac Heeney and Brodie Grundy tore the Eagles apart . Heeney kicked four goals and had 26 disposals while Grundy produced 28 possessions, nine clearances and one goal.
West Coast trailed by 63 points at halftime and never got back into the contest.
“The game got worse as it went on, and the scoreboard got worse. We’ve got to endure for longer,” McQualter said.
“This game’s relentless. It’s every week. Every single opposition you play is capable of playing at a high level. This is the best comp we’ve got. So when you’re five per cent off, it’s a long way.”
West Coast badly missed star midfielder Elliot Yeo after he injured his groin last week, and Swans tagger James Jordan blanketed Harley Reid all night.
The number one draft pick struggled to get into the game for the first three quarters, but McQualter defended Reid’s discipline after he gave away free kicks and a 50m penalty.
He said West Coast must help Reid when he is getting tagged.
“We didn’t help Harley enough,” he said.
“We tried quite a few different things, moved him positionally a few times, and he was not quite the level he’s been the last few weeks. But that’s what you get from a 20-year-old.
“We need Harley playing great footy for us. That’s what it is needed. So his teammates have got to help him do that. And that’s the first hard tag he’s copped this year. So we’ll have a look at it, and we’ll work, get to work on it”