Eagles play down ‘Mummy boys’ tag in AFL

West Coast coach Adam Simpson insists his team won’t be distracted by outside criticism despite being labelled as mummy’s boys in the wake of their humiliating AFL loss to Hawthorn.

The Eagles were widely slammed after they suffered a 51-point loss to lowly Hawthorn on Sunday – their second MCG flop of the season.

Brisbane great Jonathan Brown labelled West Coast “mummy’s boys” during his Nova FM radio segment this week, jokingly saying Eagles players had the mindset of, “Mum’s not there to put my nappy on, I can’t win on the road”.

Fellow AFL greats Garry Lyon and Matthew Lloyd also questioned West Coast’s mettle away from home.

West Coast will be aiming to bounce back in Saturday night’s western derby against Fremantle, and Simpson says his players won’t let the recent criticism get to them.

“Mummy’s boys. I haven’t heard that one,” Simpson said on Wednesday.

“It’s just outside noise to us. I’d hate to think they would need that as motivation.

“I can understand the criticism, but it won’t affect our planning going forward and our processes and how we want to deliver consistent footy.

“We know we need to get better. We were really poor on the weekend.

“You get what you deserve in the game, and you’ve got to cop it.

“There’s only one way you can fix that, and it’s through your actions.”

Simpson called on the team’s senior members to lead from the front in the wake of the poor display.

And Fremantle coach Ross Lyon unleashed a war cry of his own, urging his team to stand up and be fierce as they attempt to end a three-match losing run against West Coast.

The Dockers have revived their finals hopes with three straight wins, but they enter Saturday night’s derby having not tasted victory over West Coast since round three, 2015.

Simpson says star midfielder Sam Mitchell (ankle) is still touch and go to play, with the former Hawk set to be given up until the last minute to prove his fitness.

Forward Jamie Cripps (ankle) has already been ruled out for eight weeks, while defender Jackson Nelson will miss a month with a fractured wrist.

The Dockers will be without star midfielder Stephen Hill, who has been ruled out for up to four weeks with a hamstring injury.

Fremantle also feared Lachie Neale would be forced to the sidelines with a knee injury, but it turned out to be a false scare.

“He finished the game in great shape,” Lyon said.

“But then I got an email (saying) we think he might have an MCL (medial collateral ligament) grade 1. I dropped my coffee.

“But luckily people make mistakes.

“He went in, and just had some inflammation inside his joint.

“He ran yesterday. He’ll train fully Thursday. He’s 100 per cent.”

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