News on West Coast's secret meeting before the club's Round 6 clash with Essendon has come to light, and the key focus areas of improvement.
Instigated by football boss and former coach John Worsfold, the Eagles attempted to get ahead of the lingering issues within the four walls, including the Oscar Allen saga.
The co-captain was seen meeting with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell earlier this year as he weighs his future as a free agent at season's end.
"I clearly understand the frustration of fans," Allen said on Pete & Kymba with Ben Cousins on Mix94.5 Thursday morning.
"We caught up completely privately, just two guys having a chat. We talked about a lot of things. We were having conversations about where I'm at, how I've been going this year and a combination of things."
The session was reportedly set to open communication lines to all key parties, providing an open forum for honest chats. Coach Andrew McQualter and GM of Football Gavin Bell were in attendance, alongside 15 other senior players.
It is also understood that Allen, Liam Duggan, Jake Waterman, Jeremy McGovern, Liam Baker and Jack Graham were involved.
Reported by Channel 7's Ryan Daniels, both the players and staff were invited to raise and address any issues, which included the following:
- General direction of the club on and off the field
- The handling of the Oscar Allen situation - players are extremely frustrated with this space, the leadership group was not consulted on Oscar when it first came to light.
- The belief is that stronger support was needed.
- Lack of clarity around selection decisions, communication breakdowns between players and club management, injury management and communication in that space
The @WestCoastEagles players/footy dept. meeting was held before the Essendon game in round 6 - and was instigated by John Worsfold, as an open communication session for key parties.
Andrew McQualter and Gavin Bell were there, along with around 15 senior players. Don Pyke wasโฆ
โ Ryan Daniels (@FootyRhino) April 30, 2025
- Along with logistical issues relating to family members, fan days, travel plans
- The general tone was intense but not combative - fed up with losing, and the little things falling by the wayside, which contribute to a successful club over time.
- Andrew McQualter's coaching and communication were not raised by players, and no concern. McQualter has strong buy-in from players.
It is understood that these meetings aren't necessarily rare, but after a winless start and a lowly percentage of 55.9, something had to give.
West Coast coach Andrew McQualter commented on the meeting at his press conference on Thursday, saying the meeting was "super productive".
โI probably want to speak to our members on this topic because it's been blown up the last couple of days, and ... I mentioned it two or three weeks ago, so we haven't kept this as a secret,โ McQualter said.
โI think any organisation that's underperforming that doesn't get its most influential people in the room to try and figure it out is being negligent. That's all we did.
โWe had a real purpose to get our most senior players and senior figures of our football department together to find a solution of the way out of where we're at.
โWe're not happy with where we are. It was a super productive meeting, everything was on the table and there has been some growth in us, our game, our environment and we're going to continue to do it.
โWe'll have meetings like that again with the sole purpose of getting better. We're aligned with our senior players, that's what came out of the meeting.โ
West Coast's last nine outings have all been defeats, but the average losing margin has been 56 points.
Daniels continued to say that some of the "smaller issues have been resolved with communication trending in the right direction, but with much more work to be done".
The Eagles will get a chance to snare their first win of 2025 when they host Melbourne at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
