West Coast has backed up a high-pressure, promising performance against ladder-leading Adelaide last week with one of its most disappointing performances of 2025.
The Eagles went down by 94 points to Western Bulldogs on Sunday at Marvel Stadium, with Western Bulldogs running rampant in a four goal to zero first quarter which laid the foundation for the disappointing showing.
“It was an interesting game today: the biggest punishment we had all day today was on the scoreboard,” coach Andrew McQualter said.
“We just couldn't quite stop any of their scoring and we clearly couldn't score – pretty big parts of footy.
“It was disappointing and you look at the game today and our pressure rating, it was actually a decent number today, quite high, but they were just so good at getting out.
“Once they got out of that first phase of defence, they just punished us, took the ball one end to the other too often, they were able to generate space, they're just stacked.
“They're one of the best teams in the comp and their numbers suggest that.
“We got taught a lesson today.”
Basic fundamental breakdowns in the defensive half of the ground particularly stung, with the Bulldogs able to punish them on the scoreboard, which hindered defensive system.
While key pillars Reuben Ginbey and Tom Cole fought hard in defence on Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy respectively, the Dogs were able to effect turnover in their front half and find other ways to goal.
“We need to spend the summer leaning into ways of competing and learning to win,” McQualter said.
“We're going to build that into our whole pre-season program, we're going to build competition into everything and we're going to start to learn how to win again because it's lost at our football club at the moment and we've got to get the feeling back."
In his second game in the midfield, Tom McCarthy had 25 disposals and 339 metres gained, while Ginbey fought hard in an under-siege defence and stand-in captain Liam Baker had 24 disposals in his 150th AFL game.
Ginbey had the matchup on Naughton who kicked three goals but both coaches agreed he fought hard.
The 20-year-old Eagle had 22 disposals and nine marks, while Sandy Brock had the matchup on Sam Darcy and kept him to three goals.
“I thought the key backs did a good job today – Bulldogs probably have the best key forwards in the competition, and they did kick three each, those two big boys, but I didn't think they were dominant in the game today,” McQualter said.
“I thought we competed well considering we were undersized – they fought hard down there but they had nearly 60 entries so it became a bit overwhelming.
“We thought ‘Naughts' would be a good matchup for and I thought it was a good matchup for him.”
