West Coast coach Adam Simpson admits such was the disappointing nature of their week one finals exit to the Western Bulldogs it was really difficult to determine how much the team achieved in 2016.
Simpson said the disappointment took a fair while to subside, and is driving the team through pre-season.
“Really difficult to access the season from our point of view, obviously the disappointment of the last game, I must admit, took a few weeks to get over, but to get the 16 wins and to get over the some hurdles mid-season I thought we were tracking for a pretty healthy campaign," he told SEN radio.
“16 wins, as we all know, normally guarantees you top four and to not achieve that and then get knocked it in the first final at home was really disappointing,
“There’s a sense of disappointment, but also optimism, I suppose.”
Simpson believes the team is not far away from success, but admits they need to find some more resilience to take the next step.
“We don’t feel like we’re too far away, but there is some things there that we’ll work on with our consistency,” he said.
“We won’t be changing too much – I think we’re on a reasonably strong path.
“It’s a combination of getting the players on the track and probably just getting a little bit more resilience.”
Champion Data analyst Glenn Luff says the key area for the Eagles to fix is the difference is the performance of their midfield between their wins and losses.
“They’re clearly in it for the now, they’re the second oldest team in the comp and clearly the most experienced,” he said.
“We really studied the comparison between their wins and losses and we felt it was the midfield that really let them down.
“They have (Matt) Priddis and (Luke) Shuey, but the rest are very outside and what happened was their pressure sort of went down and the inside 50 numbers blew out in their losses.
“The bookends held up in their wins and losses, but it was the amount of ball that went inside…and I think they’ve got to get a better balance in that midfield.”
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David King’s Prediction
Scarred by that last game, you can tell that’s going to be the driving force for the pre-season.
The big watch for me is what impact can Sam Mitchell have, not just on sheer ball winning ability or use of the footy, but the way Hawthorn have defended over the past couple of years hasn’t been the traditional form.
It’s been harassment around the action, corralling…I wonder whether Sam can get that message across better as a player out on the field, than what a coach can do.
It just could be the thing that wins West Coast a couple of big games for the year…the ones that count.
They’re going to be a force in 2017.