West Coast coach Andrew McQualter was extremely pleased with how his team performed despite the loss to Adelaide, claiming it was a much improved performance on his side's 83-point loss to Melbourne the previous week.
The Eagles pushed the ladder-leading Crows to the brink but fell agonisingly short of a famous upset at Optus Stadium in Liam Duggan's 200th game.
“Yeah, look, really, really pleased with the response. I was really flat last week,” McQualter said after the game.
“We were disappointed with the effort we gave last week, but we dug into that a fair bit this week and I think if we play like that every week, we'll be OK.”
“Probably for a month we've dropped our level and then it's been a little bit of personnel. There's been some challenges, no doubt, in that space, but I think we saw today and we learned today that it doesn't take any talent, skill, where you were in the draft to give defensive effort and intent. I thought that was the best we've defended all year.”
McQualter particularly sang the praises of young defender Reuben Ginbey who quelled the impact of Thilthorpe for three quarters.
Ginbey has stepped up admirably in the absence of five-time All-Australian Jeremy McGovern, who was farewelled alongside retiring champion Dom Sheed.
“I think it was a real team effort, but in particular, like Reuben Ginbey, it's extraordinary he wasn't in that under-22 team (2025 AFL Players’ Association’s 22Under22 squad).
“People aren't watching closely enough if he's not in that team. He's just an unbelievable competitor.
"And I thought he was well supported today. Our system of defence was what we expect from our players today. And the way we defended our D50, we were really pleased with.”
McQualter explained that a number of his players were carrying niggles in the match.
“We had a few guys that were a bit wounded. Archer (Reid) came off at stages with a sore foot. ‘Flynny’ (Matt Flynn) copped an ankle knock and Ryan Maric had a bit of a corky. Clay Hall got a hit late.“Sometimes in footy that happens and you just have to fight your way through it. I thought those guys continued to compete and provided some aerial presence for us.”
Of the incident with Duggan and Thilthorpe, McQualter said he hadn’t seen it closely.
“I thought he got him in the shoulder. I saw Thilthorpe come off with a shoulder, on the bench that's what I saw. I obviously didn't see the vision, so I'm not sure.
“He chose to bump, did he? Well, Thilthorpe played the game out, so it looked like he came off with a shoulder to me.”
