West Coast midfielder Jack Graham says his side has more to prove in the second half of the season as they come off their midseason bye this weekend.
The second half of West Coast’s season begins with Andrew McQualter’s men travelling to Melbourne to play the top-ranked Collingwood side at Marvel Stadium this Saturday.
It’s a huge challenge for the 18th-placed Eagles, as history shows no bottom-ranked side has been able to conquer the ladder leaders in 20 years.
Graham says it’s an opportunity to see how they stack up against a side playing a style of footy his side is aspiring towards.
“They’re the best of the best, and their game style and plan is what we’re trying to go after,” he told SportFM.
“They’ve got a lot of polish and have been gelled together for the last three or four years. They’re playing it well at the moment. It’s going to be a hard team to play against.
“We’ve got to come in and get our defence right. Take their strengths away from them.
“It’s going to be a good challenge for us because we’re going to see how the best move the ball and what they do with it.
“We’re up for the fight. We’re always up for the fight.”
Although they have one win to show, West Coast has been on an upward trajectory with evident improvement each round, but still, some cracks continue to show in their game.
This was clear in their game before the bye against Carlton, where they coughed up seven goals and effectively put the final nail in the coffin by the end of the first quarter.
McQualter was left unimpressed, stating they were ‘pathetic in the contest’ and needed to respond during a quarter-time interview.
Coming off the bye, West Coast has a clearer picture of where they’re at and where they need to get to work.
“We’ve still got a lot to prove in the second half of the year,” Graham said..
“We know where we are at the moment and what we’re not happy with, so we have got to get to work.
“When we are playing good football, we know the key areas that we’re improving in, but then our bad side lets us down and we’re not able to compete.
“When sides get momentum and can put up four or five goals quick like we’ve seen in that Carlton first quarter, and how we can weather the storm and fight back.”
Graham also said a collective lift in team defence is a key focus for the second half, and will avoid a situation like the Carlton match.
Once the defence falls into place, then the offensive, attacking footy should follow on.
“The more we limit teams chipping the ball around and force them to go long into live plays, that’s when we can pounce and play that exciting brand of footy that we’ve been showing patches of,” he said.
“It comes off the back of our defence, and that’s all from 18 men out there on the field buying into a system that we know stacks up. It’s just about doing it for longer.
“Once we get our defence up, we can move the ball well and that’s what I’m excited for this back half of the year.
“We’ve shown it, but we’ve just got to do it for longer and be stronger at it.”
IMAGE: West Coast Eagles