West Coast delays Jeremy McGovern return as Adam Simpson speaks on club’s injury list

And at West Coast in 2023, it is definitely better to leave a four time All-Australian defender in Perth with a tight hamstring than take him to Sydney where he might tear that hamstring off the bone … again.

When Adam Simpson reveals fitness news these days it is at best mixed and sometimes only bad. So the good news on Thursday was that the news was mixed.

The Eagles backline does get Liam Duggan and Tom Barrass back to bolster the ranks for a clash with Sydney at the SCG.

But Jeremy McGovern, who had been widely expected to play his first game since round 3, will miss at least one more week.

When you add Elijah Hewett (concussion), who was on the plane to Sydney, but then subtract Greg Clark (ankle) and Luke Foley (hamstring), the Eagles are plus three minus two for the clash with the Swans but they will definitely take the three ins.

“The week off doesn’t fix everything in terms of availability. We probably get a little bit healthier but we lost a couple last week,” Simpson said. “There is a good sprinkle of senior players and younger players this week so we will see how we go.

“McGovern won’t be playing this week but Barrass will come in and so will a couple of others.

“We are a bit light for talls. We think Barrass coming back in will help that. We didn’t have Barrass or McGovern or Hurn for Adelaide and that really put us under the pump. Rhett Bazzo is 19 playing his tenth game. That is going to be reality for us for a while. There are a lot of guys due to come back in rounds 17 and 18 and some of those guys could get pushed back further some of those guys might come back earlier.

“But the health of our list is not going to get a lot better. It (number of available players) is going to sit around the 30 mark at best which makes it difficult to get the team that you want on the park but it also gives opportunity.”

The Eagles decided they were better to play it safe than be sorry with McGovern, who suffered a high grade hamstring injury in the round three Western Derby loss to Fremantle and hasn’t played since.

“It is a 14 week injury and it has been 12 weeks,” Simpson said. “He fully trained yesterday but he has pulled up a bit tight. We have just got to be careful. We were really pushing for this week and the expectation was that he was going to play but this was a sign that he wasn’t fully ready, the way he pulled up yesterday.”

The Eagles have also learned over the past two years that getting the names back on paper doesn’t solve many problems if the preparation isn’t right.

In 2021 they rushed a group of senior players back from injury at the halfway point of the season believing they were in contention and trying to stay there and lost seven of their last nine games.

It was the trigger for the nightmare of the last two seasons which has seen them win just three of 35 games in 2022 and 2023 so far.

“The synergy piece is the one which is not as easy to handle and there is the game time and their minutes and how we build them back in. Unfortunately we have gone through this a few times in the past couple of years and it is not easy,” Simpson said.

The good news on that front is that Barrass and Duggan have not missed long stints and will therefore be ready to play full games.

Meanwhile, Simpson showed he has at least not lost his sense of humour in this bleak season when asked if he had been able to disconnect from the job during his week off.

It had been speculated recently that he was to be sent on three months leave at the end of the season, a story which was news to Simpson and was later dismissed by the club.

More Coverage

‘Dancer’s injury’: Why Eagles casualty ward is unprecedented

Mark Duffield

“How long do you need before you can disconnect? I think it is more than four days. It was three months apparently a few weeks ago,” he said.

“It was more the fact that we didn’t have to prepare and review a game – when you have these byes, that is the relief piece. But you have still got work to do.”

A sense of humour still. And still a master of understatement.