West Coast co-captain Oscar Allen defends Eagles coach Adam Simpson after Hawthorn loss

West Coast co-captain Oscar Allen has defended coach Adam Simpson amid fresh criticism, saying the pressure on the under-fire coach was “completely unfair”.

The hapless Eagles were humiliated by a younger and less experienced Hawthorn side by 61 points at Optus Stadium on Sunday, despite fielding arguably their best team in recent years.

That led to renewed calls for Simpson’s tenure to end, after just eight wins in his last 64 games at the helm.

But Allen hit back by insisting the blame for the embarrassing home defeat lay solely with the players.

“It’s completely unfair,” Allen said of the criticism of Simpson, who is under contract until the end of next season.

“It hurts because we, the players… we are the ones who go on the pitch and achieve this performance.

West Coast were humiliated by Hawthorn on Sunday. Credit: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian

“Simmo works as hard as anyone to make sure we are prepared as best we can to execute a game plan and if we are not able to do that, we, the 23, are responsible for that.

“It’s a huge responsibility for us to try to fix that this weekend.”

Allen, who took over as joint captain with Liam Duggan ahead of the 2024 season, admitted the 10-goal loss to the Hawks was one of the worst of his career.

“Any time you lose a football game it hurts, but this weekend was definitely another level of pain,” he said.

“We’ve had some tough days in recent years and Sunday afternoon was one of them.”

But Allen denied the 2018 Premier League manager had lost the players, saying “everyone within these four walls (of the club) supports Simmo”.

West Coast Eagles training in Laithlain. Adam Simpson. Credit: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian

“The band is completely behind Simmo and he’s not here to play,” Allen said.

“As the leader of the group that was on the pitch this weekend, this was not acceptable.

“We are clearly frustrated and we understand why our fans and supporters are too.

“It’s disappointing how we played this weekend and we have to take responsibility for that and as a leader I have to take responsibility for that as well… I definitely take some responsibility for that.

“As a player I take responsibility for it… it’s not Simmo’s fault, it’s us as a group of players’ fault.”