Eagles dare to dream after big win
West Coast coach Adam Simpson is refusing to discuss the possibility of playing finals in his first season despite the Eagles' staying in touch with the eight thanks to a brilliant 31-point win over Adelaide today.
The Eagles were fantastic and fought back from four goals down just 10 minutes into the match to dominate the Crows at Adelaide Oval.
The team kicked 20.16 (136) to 16.9 (105) as Josh Kennedy kicked five goals.
West Coast are now on 32 points - only one win behind the Crows, who began the weekend in the eight.
Finals contenders Collingwood and Gold Coast have also begun the round on 36 points. West Coast plays Collingwood next week and Gold Coast in round 23.
But Simpson said finals weren't part of his thinking.
"I think it's a fair stretch," Simpson said.
"We've just got to keep winning. We play Collingwood in eight days so we're not looking at that as a goal. We want to finish the year off well to give us momentum for next year.
"Whether that's finals, we're not necessarily talking about that. We just want to win next week. We wanted to win today, we'll have a crack next week and see how we go."
Despite kicking their second highest score of the year, Simpson said he would prefer the team to play more defensively. But he said the team's ball use was the best it had been for a long time.
"We've been working on moving the ball a little bit quicker. The main message today was just to be brave and play on the edge," Simpsons said.
"We've been working a lot on the basic fundamentals. It worked for us today."
