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A pair of West Coast powerbrokers have backed Adam Simpson, saying that the Eagles should retain the embattled senior coach for 2024.
While Simpson’s position is under serious threat, as the club board prepares to decide whether to pay out his contract and part company, long-serving former club chairman Murray McHenry and club benefactor and wealthy property magnate Nigel Satterley have called for Simpson to remain as coach next year.
Veteran West Coast coach Adam Simpson.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
McHenry is one of the club’s founding fathers, shareholder, board member and then chairman, a role in which he served in the late 1990s. He is close to current chairman Paul Fitzpatrick and chief executive Trevor Nisbett.
McHenry said he had been “a strong Adam Simpson person to be coach” at the Eagles. “I have no reason to change that judgment,” he said.
McHenry said injuries were the major reason behind West Coast’s terrible performances and suggested that the Eagles had prospered when Sam Mitchell was Simpson’s assistant in 2017 (playing assistant coach) and 2018 (coaching).
“It’s not one to two players out, it’s five to six and that’s what causes the heavy losses.”
The Eagles would face a payout of more than $1.6 million – considerably more if they greatly exceed the soft cap on football and pay a hefty tax – if Simpson was removed with two years left on his contract. McHenry said of that possibility: “That’s a huge expense for us and are we going to do better than Adam Simpson?”
Satterley, who is one of Perth’s biggest property magnates and has assisted the Eagles with investments for key players and coaches over the decades, said Simpson should remain coach of the club.
“I’m in the Adam’s camp to stay,” said Satterley, who has been an influential figure in business and politics in Perth and a supporter of ex-premier Mark McGowan despite Liberal Party membership. “I rate Adam as a person and family man and he’s been great for our football club.”
But Satterley also called for the West Coast club board to take ownership of the club in its predicament. “The board needs to take control of the football club.”
Satterley, like McHenry and the latter’s close ally lawyer Neil Hamilton, was an early shareholder when the Eagles were a listed company and retained influence from the 1990s until recent times. He described the AFL as “a high cost, low margin business”, adding, “it has to be run efficiently.”
McHenry has a strong relationship with West Coast chairman Paul Fitzpatrick, who acted for the WA football commission in the latter’s capacity as a lawyer.
While the two long-time powerbrokers have supported Simpson, the club’s eight-member board has to consider whether a fresh start is needed, given the five 100-point losses and dismal results this year, with the coach well aware that he could lose his job next week.
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