Eagles midfielder Matt Priddis tries to evade Adelaide’s Scott Thompson and Richard Douglas during the match Adelaide Oval on Sunday. Photograph: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images.
Camera IconEagles midfielder Matt Priddis tries to evade Adelaide’s Scott Thompson and Richard Douglas during the match Adelaide Oval on Sunday. Photograph: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

West Coast Eagles loss to Adelaide ‘just a hiccup’: Josh Kennedy

Josh KennedyEastern Reporter

PART of the mental preparation going into any game of football is visualising how the game might unfold and you think about your own role and how that might contribute to team success.

It's reasonable to assume none of us imagined the way the game against Adelaide would play out on Sunday.

We were pretty confident going in, believing that if we played our way we would get the result.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

But, as you would all know, that's not how it panned out.

Adelaide got away to a flier, we tried to peg them back and were working our way into the game before the Crows kicked it up a gear and went on to win by about 10 goals. We went into the game understanding Adelaide's capabilities and we were out-played.

It was really disappointing, but we think it was just a hiccup and it might just serve as a reminder that we all need to play our part for the team to play its best football.

We had a few blokes who played at the standards they have set themselves over the course of the year, but only a few.

We won't dwell on that game for too long. We'll review it as we always do, take some key learnings away from it and then focus on our last qualifying game against St Kilda at Domain Stadium on Saturday night.

Hopefully there's a packed house to support us in the last game and if we can beat the Saints we can still lock down a spot in the top two which would give us a great platform leading into the finals series.

While we know what is at stake, we will again concentrate on getting the job done. If we play our way, the result " and the reward " will look after itself.

We're pretty excited to be in this position and our destiny from here is definitely in our own hands.

This time last year we were relying on other results as we were hoping to play finals and as it transpired Richmond upset Sydney and grabbed the last spot in the eight, leaving us to play a "dead rubber" against Gold Coast.

Because of the season we have had we are already guaranteed a top four spot, which we would gladly have taken if it had been offered it before the season started. We can do better than that by finishing in the top two, guaranteeing two home finals and that gives us a great opportunity to impact the finals series.

We know we have got some work ahead of us, but we're really looking forward to it.

Hopefully our fans have enjoyed the ride and get right behind us over the next few weeks. There is nothing quite like playing at home with the West Coast faithful throwing their support behind us.