Eagles called INSIPID in troubling season

Collingwood premiership midfielder Dale Thomas has slammed an “insipid” West Coast, labelling them the worst team in the AFL “by far”.

The Eagles will return to training on Thursday after a few days off and prepare to tackle the second half of the season, which has them sitting at bottom of the ladder with a dismal record of 1-11 and a lowly percentage of just 50.7.

North Melbourne might sit just 1.6 per cent above the Eagles, but Thomas, who played 258 games for the Magpies and Carlton, said the Eagles were easily worse than the Kangaroos.

“We let West Coast off at the start because they actually had reasons rather than excuses (in) COVID, injuries, decimated,” Thomas told Triple M.

“North Melbourne doesn’t have the list that West Coast have. The effort and the output that West Coast are bringing week in, week out is insipid. It is not good enough for the level.

“At least North Melbourne, yes they get beaten comprehensively most weeks and some weeks, against Melbourne they tried their guts out. They were competitive, you could see the effort. I don’t see that (with West Coast).”

Thomas said the Eagles were trying but had “accepted their fate”.

“There are levels of trying and one or two per cent when you’re not giving it your absolute all, that’s a 10-goal loss to start with,” Thomas said.

Former St Kilda midfielder Leigh Montagna said the Eagles were the slowest team the AFL had seen for a long time after watching their 31-point loss to Adelaide on Saturday.

“Jamie Cripps is the only player with leg speed, they’re just slow,” he said.

“I just genuinely think they can’t cover the ground, it’s becoming a real issue and it’s something that Adam Simpson is going to have to address over the off-season.”

Suspended West Coast midfielder Elliot Yeo hit back, saying several Eagles broke records on the track in the summer.

“We had 15 or 16 PBs in pre-season for 2km (time-trials),” Yeo told 96FM.

“If he’s talking about top-end speed, I’m sure everyone would look at Gov (Jeremy McGovern) and go jeez, he’s not that quick but he still runs 34-35km.

“I think it’s just one of those pot-shots.”

Yeo said it felt like people were kicking them while they were down.

“When you’re losing games of football and you’re losing games by the amount we’re losing them and the way we’re losing them, you open yourself up to that criticism,” he said.