WEST Coast coach Andrew McQualter says the Eagles have made positive change on and off the field since a meeting between key leaders after Gather Round, dismissing suggestions of an intervention following the club's winless start to the season.
McQualter first spoke about the meeting between on- and off-field leaders after an improved performance against Essendon in round six and on Thursday said the Eagles would be negligent not to bring their most influential people together to find solutions.
The coach was emphatic that he felt "100 per cent" supported by his football department after providing a forum for the leaders to "put everything out there" in an effort to improve.
"It's been blown up the last couple of days and I mentioned it two or three weeks ago, so we haven't kept this as a secret," McQualter said on Thursday.
"I think any organisation that's underperforming that doesn't get their most influential people in a room to try and figure it out is being negligent. So that's all we did.
"We had a real purpose to get our most senior players and our senior figures of our football department together to find a solution out of where we're at.
"We're not happy with where we are. It was a super productive meeting. Everything was on the table and there has been some growth in us and our game and our environment. We're going to continue to do it.
"We're aligned with our senior players. That's what came out of the meeting. We provided a great forum to put everything out there about what we're trying to do as a club, and every person that walked out of there had intention to make us better."
McQualter said the meeting was called by the football department and it was factually wrong to describe it as an intervention.
The coach said the club was not where it wanted to be after a 0-7 start, but he loved the challenge now being faced to turn things around.
"We want to win games of AFL football and we want to be competing in finals, but it was always going to be difficult and it will be difficult still going forward," he said.
"That's the beauty of it. I love that challenge. We spoke about it as a group, this is where you want to gel together as a unit, as a team, as a department, as a football club to dig our way out of here."
Co-captain Oscar Allen on Thursday addressed the mental challenges he had faced since a private meeting at his house with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell was made public.
Allen took a break from the club in the build-up to the Essendon game in round six and did not face the Bombers, with McQualter saying the Eagles had respected his wishes at that time by declaring he was managed after a heavy workload.
"What we've done the last couple of weeks is try and support Oscar as much as we can. When he missed the game of football, he wanted us to not speak about it and we granted his wishes because that's his mental health that we were talking about," McQualter said.
"So we just did everything we did to support Oscar. He had a small break away, which is what he needed.
"I think we forget, these people are human. We choose to live our lives publicly because that is the nature of our business, but we all have emotions. We're human.
"So Oscar had a little break. We supported him in it. He came back to the football club he's in great spirits at the moment and we will continue to support him."
McQualter dismissed suggestions that Allen should be dropped after a quiet start to the season, which saw him kick four goals across his first five games while spending periods in defence.
The 26-year-old, who will play his 100th game this Saturday, was redeployed as a key defender again against Hawthorn, with McQualter making the move because it is the best thing for the team.
"We know he's not in the best form of his career right now, but Oscar is working as hard as anyone to get himself going on the football field and we're going to continue supporting him," he said.
"He's really keen on playing back, he's really keen on helping our team any way he can.
"I know key forward is an incredibly hard position to play and you're reliant on the game coming to you a little bit, so if [freeing him up mentally] is a by-product of moving back, that's great."
McQualter revealed senior midfielder Elliot Yeo was meeting with a surgeon on Thursday as he continues to battle knee and ankle issues following a pre-season injury.
He said club champion Tim Kelly would return for Saturday night's clash against Melbourne after missing one week with a toe issue, with the club prepared for tagger Jack Viney to target one of their onballers.
