Former Premiership Eagle Peter Sumich believes there will be improvement under first-year coach Andrew McQualter, but is holding back on calls that West Coast are back.
The Eagles showed promising signs in their pre-season match sim where they unveiled a new game style and their offseason recruits for the first time under McQualter against his former side.
West Coast dominated – particularly in the second term where they piled on six unanswered goals, finishing 10.2 (62) to 4.2 (26) by the end of the three terms.
There was plenty to like about the Eagles side that showed up last Monday at Mineral Resources Park, beating a young and inexperienced Richmond side by 36 points, with young Eagles stars putting their best foot forward.
With Round One around the corner, many of the Eagles faithful are up and about, however Sumich told SportFM, there will be improvement under McQualter, but believes they aren’t quite back yet.
“McQualter will improve it. He’ll improve alone just with fitness,” he said.
“I reckon if you can get them up and about with the fitness, that’s the main thing for me straight away and then everything else should fall into place.
“I think we’re going to be in a bit of pain. I don’t know if we’re back at the moment. I think we’ll just ride the wave this year.
“It’ll be a big wave, and we’ll have a few big falls as well. Hopefully we can get on to one and have a bit of a run as well. But we’ll wait and see.
“We’re not back, but I can understand that we’ve got to be positive.”
West Coast, based on their match sim and the intraclub on Saturday, has adopted an organised chaos-style game plan similar to the one played implemented at Richmond during their triple-premiership run.
While Damien Hardwick was the primary mastermind behind it, McQualter was part of the coaching panel behind it, and has taken it west to revive the Eagles after some difficult years.
In their preseason hit outs West Coast looked notably quicker, were looking to gain territory and locked the ball in their forward half more. On the defensive side, they brought high tackling pressure and were able to force more turnovers from the opposition.
Sumich believes more time is needed to determine if the gameplan inspired Richmond’s glory days will suit the young Eagles outfit.
“I think McQualter will be good for him in the long run. He’s got that bit of Richmond chaos footy going, they reckon,” he said.
“Proof will be in the pudding as the weeks go on and the months go on. We’ve always said that he’ll have at least 12 to 18 months grace here. So will Don Pyke and John Worsfold with the way they’re supposed to get the club up and running.
“I think there’s still gaping holes there unfortunately. You can do all this chaos ball and all this, but I think you’ll find out that you’ve got to have a fair bit of skill.
“It was a pretty good Richmond side, and the chaos ball suited them with those type of players. I don’t know whether it’s going to suit West Coast. We’ll wait and see.”
Along with McQualter, West Coast lured two premiership Tigers – Liam Baker and Jack Graham, out west to add more experience and strengthen the rebuilding side.
The former Richmond duo has settled in quickly and become two standouts on the training track, leading from the front and driving the standards among the playing group.
Graham has found his feet in the Eagles’ midfield after spending most of his career resting forward while Baker has adopted a role at half-back this season.
Sumich has praised the pair and former Blue Matt Owies, for their output in preseason.
“Them two and Owies have been their best trainers. What does that tell you? In the sense that they’re up and about and they’re best trainers throughout pre-season,” he said.
“That tells you how far behind last year and the year before was with their fitness and their energy at training and being up and about, if you’ve had three recruits come in and they’ve set standards straight away.
“They’ve been up and about, apparently, and set great standards at training those three.
“With the leadership of those two Richmond boys, because of their premiership wins and the way Richmond have gone about it the last seven, eight, nine years, you think its got to help West Coast and push them on a bit quicker.”
IMAGE: West Coast Eagles