By Jake Niall
West Coast would face a payout of close to $1 million if they sack Adam Simpson as senior coach at or near the end of the 2024 season.
For many clubs, the prospect of spending that $1 million – money that must be counted in their soft cap – on a costly termination would be sufficient to give the senior coach the opportunity to coach on and complete his contract.
In the event of his termination, the Eagles would honour his contract by paying it out. Despite the payout, it is difficult to see how Simpson will survive as coach after a third season in which West Coast have continued to produce an excess of substandard performances.
West Coast coach Adam Simpson has been in the gun recently.Credit: AFL Photos
Since 2022, the Eagles have won eight of 61 games and will finish bottom two or three for the third time. While 2024 has seen a level of improvement, on the back of Harley Reid’s startling debut season, Jake Waterman’s unexpected rise, and the return to a semblance of their best by Elliot Yeo and Jeremy McGovern, the bottom line is still ugly for the competition’s most financially powerful club.
On Monday, West Coast’s hierarchy was silent on the Simpson situation – neither chief executive Don Pyke nor chairman Paul Fitzpatrick willing to venture any comment on the senior coach’s position.
Simpson was completing his normal duties on Monday. A source familiar with his situation said the club hierarchy had not broached the topic of his future with him when he was at work.
The hierarchy’s silence can be read in various ways, and it is understandable that the board and Pyke aren’t keen to fan a media inferno. The fires of speculation will burn regardless, however – more so after The West Australian published a story alleging that text messages from unnamed players had expressed dissatisfaction with the coach.
The scoreboard and ladder, rather than feedback from some disaffected players, are what counts most heavily against Simpson. West Coast’s better performances – their upsets of Melbourne and Fremantle in particular – are also damning when you ponder why that effort isn’t forthcoming more often.
Another factor that arguably counts against the incumbent is that there are obvious replacements for Simpson in the marketplace.
Dean Cox and Ash Hansen, senior assistants at Sydney and Carlton, are viewed as potential senior coaches and their credentials have been burnished by those teams’ form. They also happen to be 2006 West Coast premiership players, are well-regarded by the Eagles, and would be an easy sell for a club that still has some pain in store as veterans exit.
Fremantle’s Jaymie Graham is another seasoned assistant with a West Coast pedigree and Pyke, who worked with Cox in Sydney, strikes one as the kind of football CEO who would run a serious process that canvasses several alternatives – and there is a strong field of assistants out there. The club might as well have a throw at the stumps, too, by approaching Geelong’s Chris Scott.
Simpson retained his job at the end of 2023 after an intense discussion of his position by the club board, when he won strong support from former Australian cricket coach Justin Langer, among others.
To sack the coach and pay out $2 million or so was beyond the pale even for West Coast, which, rightly, recognised that they stood to gain little from moving Simpson with two years on his deal, when the team was hardly about to contend for the finals.
This time, however, a payout is more feasible. Hawthorn were allowed to spread Alastair Clarkson’s $900,000 over two years in the soft cap, mitigating the damage to the football budget. The Eagles can follow the Hawthorn script and the payout is hardly prohibitive to a club that is richer than King Midas.
Should coach and club part at, or near, the season’s cessation – an odds-on proposition – one would hope that Simpson is afforded the respect befitting his service and stature as one of three West Coast premiership coaches.
The only factor that might be argued in favour of retaining Simpson for another season would be to spare his successor from another year of pain, which remains on the cards in 2025.
To have a classy exit, in which the coach and club shake hands and wish each other well, is not always possible – ask Brett Ratten – but this time, it is essential.
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