Simmo's shift the absolute end of an era

Perth Now

30-07-2025

Maybe it's a new dawn at the West Coast Eagles … at the very least it's a symbolic end for one of the most significant coaching eras in the storied club's history.
Adam Simpson led the Eagles to six finals series, including two grand finals and of course there was also that famous 2018 premiership.
For years he called City Beach his home, with neighbours including cricket legend Justin Langer. Two elite coaches, two fierce competitors, and two men who found themselves on parallel journeys, from the highest highs to the loneliest lows. Adam Simpson celebrates the 2018 grand final win. Credit: Michael Willson / AFL Media
You can imagine the two deep thinkers sitting around the fire pit, swapping stories about the emotional toll of leading under pressure. I'm guessing they were each other's sounding boards in the toughest of times: one guiding a baggy green legacy, the other trying to hold together an Eagles dynasty slipping through his fingers.
And so as Simpson sells up and moves on from City Beach, it's a new dawn for the Eagles. The Adam Simpson era fading into the rear vision mirror … Simmo released from the coaching box, where he spent the past three seasons slowly turning into a human ball of stress.
Enter Andrew 'Mini' McQualter, the man with the most Maccas drive-thru sounding name in footy. Handed the keys to the luxury Audi that is the West Coast Eagles, Mini's inherited a vehicle that wasn't so much stuck in reverse as possessing only two gears. It also smelt faintly of Dencorub, ageing premierships, regret, and Luke Shuey's heavily iced hamstrings. Andrew McQualter. Credit: Paul Kane / Getty Images
To his credit, Mini brings experience. At Richmond, he saw success and now he's the new king of Perth's western suburbs, where football is not so much a game as a social currency. A spiritual calling. A reason for grown men to sigh dramatically over a skinny latte at Claremont Quarter.
Eagles fans from Mossie Park to Subi are cautiously optimistic. Finally, a clean slate. A fresh voice. A man who wasn't there when the wheels fell off and rolled quietly into the Swan River.
Some are already whispering 'Mini Messiah', though that nickname might be better saved for Elliot Yeo, assuming he stops breaking mirrors and walking under ladders.
But the real reason the faithful dare to believe again is a teenage human cannonball named Harley Reid. Reid, who plays like he's just emerged from a Marvel movie, has quickly gone from 'exciting prospect' to 'spiritual leader of the resistance.' He throws himself into contests like he's trying to win the rights to be the next John Worsfold. Harley Reid tangles with Caleb Serong. Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos / AFL Photos via Getty Images
And in the western suburbs, kids have started growing mullets, buying biceps, and asking for Number 9 Eagles jerseys with the same urgency usually reserved for AirPods and orthotics.
Of course, it's not all mullets and miracles.
Recruit Jack Graham got suspended for a homophobic slur, reminding everyone that culture rebuilds aren't just about footy smarts … they're about values. And that words, even in the heat of battle, have weight. The club acted swiftly, but the ghosts of past off-field dramas rose up again.
Meanwhile, over at Fremantle, it's been emotion of a different kind: the farewell of a favourite son — Michael 'Son Son' Walters — a player so beloved that even Eagles fans clapped him off Optus Stadium.
Walters leaves a legacy of brilliance and magic. A proud Noongar man who played with heart, flair and deep loyalty to the jumper, his send-off was heartfelt.
And then there was Andy Brayshaw, who recently produced the most unintentionally iconic moment this year.
Interviewed on national TV while bleeding profusely from his skull, Brayshaw turned a medical incident into a branding opportunity. Covered in claret, he answered questions like a man delivering a TED Talk mid-concussion. WA marketing execs are still wiping away tears: such authenticity, such pain, such resilience. Andrew Brayshaw nurses his injury during the game against Hawthorn. Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos / AFL Photos via Getty Images
Personally, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if he had bled purple. It seemed so in keeping with the whole moment. To Barra-phrase Churchill, as we all know, the Dockers are a purple riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Following the Dockers has made me delve into the purple world and I've discovered some of the greatest minds were also purple fans.
'Purple is the colour of the dreamer, a shade that sparks ideas yet untold.' – Mark Twain
'The world needs more purple – more creativity, passion, and a sense of wonder.' – Pablo Picasso
'Purple is the colour of imagination, where dreams are born and creativity thrives.' – Albert Einstein
'Purple is where fantasy and reality meet to create something extraordinary.' – George Bernard Shaw
G. B. Shaw probably summed it up best.
And still Freo coach Justin Longmuir looks more and more like a man whose WiFi keeps dropping out. The other day his media conferences read like a quote from The Karate Kid: 'We lost the structure, but the structure was within us all along'.
Often by the third quarter, even the Dockers' GPS data seems to have given up and started drawing mandalas.
Mind you, Longmuir's line about the potential for him to be 'guts up in the Bahamas' made me think he has a lot of more personality to display.
Dockers fans would be nodding solemnly now over their turmeric lattes, murmuring things like 'but Jye Amiss is playing his role, even if he's not kicking goals'. It's part coping, part prophecy.
Hope is a waking dream. And we hope, most of all, that whatever strange curse has plagued Freo since 1995 has finally been driven out by a purple sage smudging ritual.
In WA, one team is starting again, the other is explaining why they haven't arrived yet.
And somewhere, along a leafy street of the western suburbs, a man in a faded Ben Cousins T-shirt walks his labradoodle and mutters the words every West Aussie has said at least once this season….
'Maybe next week.'