New West Coast coach Andrew McQualter insists his team's horror loss to Gold Coast wasn't down to a lack of trying, and he's backing Harley Reid and his midfield brigade to rebound against Brisbane.
The Eagles were uncompetitive from start to finish in their 87-point loss to the Suns, with Gold Coast dominating the contested possession count (145-102), inside-50s (67-34) and clearances (50-33) on the way to the biggest win in the club's AFL history.
West Coast's midfield was particularly poor, with Tim Kelly (14 disposals, four clearances) and Reid (12 disposals, one clearance, one goal) clearly out of sorts.
Matt Flynn (13 hitouts) copped a pasting in the ruck against Jarrod Witts (68 hitouts).
The task will be even more difficult for West Coast on Sunday when they confront defending premiers Brisbane at the Gabba.
McQualter said his team's contest work simply wasn't good enough against Gold Coast, and he is confident of a big turnaround this week.
"The things I just spoke about, the things we've reviewed, we're confident we can fix straight away," McQualter said.
"Whether that means we win the game or the contest, it doesn't, but it gives us much more of a chance.
"We've got a midfield group that was beaten last week, and there are some proud guys in that group, so I'm excited to see what they're going to put out this week."
Reid has copped the heaviest criticism in the wake of last week's loss, with his engagement in off-the-ball scraps and playing for free kicks raising questions about his focus.
"Honestly, I don't read any of it (the criticism)," McQualter said.
"There's so many opinions that are going around at the moment that it's important we understand what we value.
"He didn't have a great game, part of a midfield that didn't have a great game. We'll get to work."
McQualter didn't buy into the school of thought that West Coast's players didn't try hard enough.
"It's a really tricky one, effort, because I think every footballer tries as hard as they can," he said.
"But there was a bit of method within our effort last week ... that we didn't get right.
"I'm involved in that as well.
"We've gone to work on that this week, but to say they didn't try - sometimes when you lose, you try harder, and you get more out of whack.
"That's kind of what happened to us last week. It was a bad game of football, but it was one game.
"We've got a plan, we've got something we're going after.
"We clearly haven't got it right in round one. The beauty is you learn and you get to move on."
All-Australian spearhead Jake Waterman will miss up to two weeks with a back issue that is causing pain in his calf, but goalsneak Liam Ryan is a strong chance to return from a hamstring injury.
