Things are likely to get worse before they get better for the West Coast Eagles playing group - set to relive Saturday's 46-point grand final loss to Hawthorn before going on holidays.
West Coast coach Adam Simpson told Radio 6PR's Sports Today on Tuesday night the Eagles would spend Wednesday going through footage from the disappointing MCG performance.
"We're going to review the game tomorrow which is going to be tough and our best-and-fairest on Friday might be the day we actually reflect on the year," Simpson said.
In a wide-ranging interview that touched on the trade period and the Eagles' lack of exposure to the MCG, as well as future plans for the versatile Jeremy McGovern, Simpson said he was still dealing with the emotional repercussions of the defeat to the Hawks.
"I'm in the anger stage, which I'm slowly coming out of," Simpson said.
"It's hard to deal with - not just for the 22 that played but the squad. We played 35 players this year. The whole club is hurting.
"Rather than scars, I hope there is motivation. It won't be something we bring up every second week. But I've seen the hurt in the boys and I've had that feeling."
Simpson said he wasn't buying into the school of logic the Eagles were overawed by the occasion against the more experienced Hawks and suggested the result boiled down to mathematics: West Coast didn't create enough opportunities of its own while allowing Hawthorn too many.
The second-year Eagles coach was also unwilling to single out individual issues in defence, including the question of who was assigned to Norm Smith medallist Cyril Rioli.
"We did some things that were uncharacteristic and you'd like to think you wouldn't produce in big games," he said.
"But we did and you can put that down to whatever you want...it's a long way back.
"You can bang on about who was on who...we can talk about JK's influence or our forwards but we had 15 less opportunities (inside-50s) and Hawthorn had 20 more against than we [normally] average."
Simpson said it was a positive that trade week targets Jack Redden and Lewis Jetta were considering West Coast as possible destinations and laid out the summer challenge for the highly talented but still injury-prone McGovern.
"We'll train him [McGovern] up as a forward at some stage over the pre-season," Simpson said.
"It's difficult to predict where he'll play as he keeps telling me his best position at the ruck. We'll wait and see on that but he has the ability to play both ends.
"We signed him up a few weeks ago but he has to get his body right and durable, because he needs to play 20 games plus games a season...and right now he's not doing that."
