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That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linkedin, the place to be, to be. Chris Waterman, of course. Eagle's champion, father of Jake, talent, a high-D in management, had inside 50 management and coach the Wembley Hammers. Money, appreciate your time. Big day for the footy guy, big day for your son. Yeah, it was a pretty big day, not unexpected though, so it was just a matter of time, I thought. They've never done it before, girl, in a in-season, sacking a coach, but I think he right, it's put on the money. It was, I think it was the only option going forward, unfortunately. Well, what they have done, they've put themselves in a good position where, regardless of any other club changes, a coach, it looks like it might be at the end of the year. I don't know who that is, and they've got no idea, but West Coast had the market to themselves. Now they've got every option available right around the country, regardless of an untried assistant or any other current coach, so they get to go through the market and choose very carefully who their next coach is. Do you reckon, we were talking to Bluey just before, and we were talking about, I think it's been probably given too much time, but I'm going to go over it again, is the text message is about players being disgruntled. That happens at every club all the time, but from your understanding, and I'm not asking you to throw Jake on the bus, I'm not sure you even discuss it at all, but do you think there is that much unrest amongst the playing group and how much the players had a say in this decision, or is it purely results driven? Oh, it's results driven, no, I just think that might have been a little bit of a can of worms, and, yeah, you're right, that happens everywhere. Not just in football clubs over the Scotty, so text messages are part of communication right around the world, so one's got into the wrong hands, and the story's remade out of it, and it may not be someone that's totally disgruntled, just had a bad day, who knows, but it's growing legs. No, I don't, I never probe Jake, I don't want to put him in that position, so, and he's not that type of person that goes around the club, looking for trouble or falling out, what's going on, he keeps himself in place. I think he can train yesterday, and he wandered upstairs and found him out in the room all by himself, so he sat and spoke for 20 minutes about life, and footy, and had a really good chat with him. He's actually got on with him very well, the whole time he's been there, and, you know, even like every player who's questioned why he's been dropped a few times, and where he's in the floor, but set over the hole, he's got on pretty well with him. That's my next question to you, Muddy, and I appreciate you coming on the show, and it's not just about Jake, we haven't talked about holistically the West Coast Eagles, and you as a former club champers as well, where to now for the footy club. But just in regards to Jake's development, I mean, this amazing breakout season, that he's had, and probably a lot of tough love from Adam Simpson over the journey, and probably not finding a spot, what do you put that down to? And it has Simo backed him in more this year than he's ripping the benefits. Short answer to Josh Kennedy, he was there until two years ago, then Jake started to find his feet last year, and of course he got crooped, and by necessity he had to start firing this year because it was now us growling out of it, so things just fell in the place, he's always had the talent, just made it the opportunity, and the right environment with a bit of a new team coming through, so yeah, there has been a lot of tough love, but that's what coaches do, they, you know, keep you on your toes the whole time, trying to force you to get better every inch of your game, so. But over the, over the nearly years, he's never had a problem with Simo in general, and he's never ever said that any minute that the club never has had, so never throwing anyone else out of the bus, as I said, I've never asked him those questions, it's not for me, and I don't even know, I'm a father, but I don't really want to put him in that position. I asked Blue the question, mate, new untried coach, or proven senior coach who's been in the chair for a while, what brain would you pull at West Coast right now? Oh, I'm not fast to be honest, come on, I just think, and I've said before, they've got the market themselves, go through every candidate, and find out who they think's the best fit for a squad that it's about to start growing, I think everyone says it's going to be a tough job, I'm not sure it's going to be that tough, to be honest, I just need to get there, hates and see, right, and get everyone up and far, and, you know, young, young heroes, not going to fire a shot this year, and sadly, he's been put out for the rest of the year, so you don't know what you've really got just there. Harley's got to get another pre-season under his belt, and a few other guys are going to get some more footy of the Liam Rines, and hopefully Donk can get going again, he's got me Gavin Brass, Reid, Jake Oscar, Marich, there's a favourite there to work with, I just think I just need to get everyone fit and healthy and get the next two drafts right, making me move them pretty quick. How much do you reckon these have changed, culture-wise? So there's been a lot of talk about the Eagles culture over these down years, and that the players, the tales almost wagging the dog, I'm an outsider mate, so I don't speak to the players about these sorts of things whenever I see any of them, but that talk hasn't gone away. Do you think that someone needs to come in and reset the place, and put a harder edge on it, because there hasn't been an edge to the Eagles, and an edge is a pretty all-encompassing sort of description, but there has been an edge to the Eagles for a number of years now. Oh, you're right, now you only have to look at Essen, and what Brad Scott's done is that was sitting there for Essen, probably the last 15 years, and he walked in and changed it pretty quickly, and I think the next person needs to understand that, and I think the COVID period really hurt the club, and now terrible through that phase, and didn't come out of it that world was probably the worst club performing in that time, and having recovered from it, so it just made that new voice, and I'll probably say the last 48 hours, if anything, it was a... I had no problem with the board back in the last year, they gave me the extension, I just thought the extension was a mile or three years ago, I thought they made a mistake there, it was just starting to... the cracks were starting to appear, and I thought they needed to wait until the end of the contract, and then had they done that, they would have seen through to there, the 22 that his time was up, but it's gone on for the next or two years, so be it. But I think they just made a new voice, a new figurehead that can just come in and put it down, stand upon it, I think you'll see that culture reset, and move forward pretty quickly, providing they get the right person. So, and stuff from you, Muddy, this morning, fantastic, great insight, and not just as a father of one of the current day players, but your knowledge is still unsurpassed, mate, we appreciate your honesty. The club, do you reckon there's any text messages going around wimbly at the moment amongst the playing group? Oh, trust me, trust me, trust me, trust me, mama, what's the breaking of this morning coming? I just had a banana mate, that's all. That's all right, four or four, I am in the gym with you. Yeah, yeah, it's standard, no more morning mate. You can do a lot worse than sitting in the golf swing. Oh, I think he's asking, I think he's asking the question, and it ran away, let's talk, let's talk. Good on you mate, appreciate it, appreciate it, good on you, there's Muddy Waterman, Chris Waterman there, some honest feedback. And great insight, Jake Waterman just saw the coach sitting quietly in the room on his own and reflecting, and they sat down and chatted for 20 minutes, I love that. It seemed like I wanted some alone time, Jake said, nah, we're chatting.
