West Coast will consider swinging rising star Jobe Shanahan down back after Fremantle exposed their shallow defensive stocks in a strong 56-point western derby victory for the Dockers.
Reuben Ginbey was the Eagles’ best in the defeat, holding Dockers spearhead Josh Treacy to one goal from three marks in a herculean performance.
West Coast were unable to stop Jye Amiss and Pat Voss who combined for eight goals in the 14.13 (97) to 5.11 (41) victory at Optus Stadium on Sunday.
Amiss kicked a career-high five goals and took a club record nine marks inside 50 opposed to Sandry Brock for much of the day, while recruit Tylar Young was well beaten by Voss, who bagged three goals — having gone into the game with 4.12 for the season.
Efficiency forward of centre was ultimately the difference between the two sides, with the Eagles winning the inside 50 count 51-50 but unable to convert their opportunities.
Shanahan has kicked seven goals in six games this season, but has also been used as a spare defender at times to try to stop opposition sides from impacting on the scoreboard when they had the momentum.
McQualter said the Eagles could send Shanahan down back in the interim as they looked for answers until Harry Edwards exits concussion protocols.
“That’s absolutely been a conversation in our match committee,” he said.
“We know Jobe’s played a lot of key back as well, so we’re going to get working our way through this.
“We think he’s playing some pretty good footy as a key forward. Today might not have been his greatest day, but the supply wasn’t exactly where he needed it. We’ll keep working on the best mix for our team to be able to compete.”
McQualter said Edwards — who had not played since round two because of a concussion — would not be far off a return to help Ginbey.
“We’re pretty hopeful Harry will be able to clear all the protocols within the next little bit of time, and from there we’ll just have to build up his contest work again,” he said.
“He’s obviously been out of that for a little period now. We’re hopeful that in the not-too-distant future, we’ll have Harry back playing footy, which is terrific for us.
“Harry’s a terrific key defender. I think in that mid-period of last year, he was one of the premier key defenders in the competition. We think he’s got a lot of growth.
“He’s going to take a little bit of time to build himself back up; he’s missed a lot of footy now, so I’m pretty sure he’ll have to come back through our WAFL program, and hopefully we get a big chunk of him through the second half of the year.”
While McQualter conceded their poor skill execution had hurt them in recent weeks, but felt it was a “lag effect” after they had worked on it throughout the summer.
“We trained more fundamentals this pre-season than I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“Sometimes there’s a lag effect with this stuff, but we’re really working hard on it.
“It’s going to bob up every now and then, and it happens. There’s a lot of mistakes in our game we just have to make sure our system is strong enough to deal with those mistakes.”
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