It may have been Good Friday, but it wasn’t the greatest Friday for West Coast who broke records for all the wrong reasons against Sydney at Optus.
The Swans rioted out to a 56-0 lead midway through the second quarter before cruising to the 18.13 (121) to 9.4 (58) win by a sickening 63 points.
“Yep, wasn’t ideal, was it?” Elliot Yeo remarked during a chat with Clairsy & Lisa on Tuesday. “It wasn’t a Good Friday.”
Yeo was one of a string of players who had just returned to the game after a horror run of injuries and protocols.
Yeo (calf) and Cripps (pectoral) had been sidelined since the pre-season, while Shuey (protocols) and Kelly (hamstring) hadn’t played since the round two loss to North Melbourne.
Shuey worked hard for 18 possessions and seven clearances, but Kelly’s output (16 disposals, three clearances) was clearly down.
While Yeo managed 15 disposals and two clearances, he copped a knock to the head in the first quarter and spent the rest of the match being watched for potential concussion.
While coach Adam Simpson has since said there was ‘no excuses’, social media had other ideas.
The recurring opinion was that players like Xavier O’Neill being dropped for older players to come back wasn’t a good thing.
However, Yeo was quick to explain that it isn’t as simple as just giving the young fellas a go – instead it has everything to do with ‘match fitness’, a concept that doesn’t always translate between WAFL and AFL levels.
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