One that got away, says Worsfold

DESPITE suffering an 18-point loss to Hawthorn at Aurora Stadium on Saturday evening, West Coast Eagles coach John Worsfold was able to take positives away from the game.

The Eagles faced the combination of one of the longest road trips in the League and the reigning premiers, but Worsfold will head back to West Australia in the belief his team is heading in the right direction.

“Regardless of home or away, we’re trying to measure the players’ performance on where we want to get to,” he said after the match.

“There were a lot of signs we were working towards that tonight, and really in a game like that it comes down to a few opportunities that one side’s going to grab and one will just miss. It happened to be us that just missed tonight.”

Worsfold cited a lack of experience and cool heads in critical situations as being vital in allowing Hawthorn to slip away with a much-needed victory.

“I’d say a couple of young players that made decision-making errors close to the Hawthorn goal cost us,” he said.

“They learn from that. It’s great experience for them ... It was always going to be tough to peg them back when they’re in front and the boys were very good to get themselves back in front in the last quarter, but not just good enough to nail them.”

Worsfold stopped short of criticising star midfielder Daniel Kerr despite his quiet night. Kerr was held to 10 disposals, the by-product of some close tagging from the Hawthorn midfield, forcing Worsfold to throw the star onballer further up the ground.

“We used him in different roles tonight for pretty big parts of the game,” he said. “He wasn’t getting in the game and [we wanted] to see what Hawthorn would do as to where he was.

Kerr was obviously targeted for close attention by the Hawks, leaving the ground bloodied at one stage early in the third quarter. When questioned about the protection afforded to Kerr by umpires, Worsfold revealed some discontent.

“What we would like to see is that if he’s trying to play the ball, he gets protected like all other players,” he said.