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West Coast veteran Shannon Hurn says Eagles didn’t play as a team as they lost his 300th game to Collingwood

Headshot of Braden Quartermaine
Braden QuartermaineThe West Australian
Shannon Hurn is chaired from the ground by teammates Jeremy McGovern and Josh Kennedy.
Camera IconShannon Hurn is chaired from the ground by teammates Jeremy McGovern and Josh Kennedy. Credit: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

There could hardly have been a more cutting criticism from Shannon Hurn – whose mantra has long been “team footy” – after the 300-game legend conceded West Coast didn’t play as a team in Saturday’s mauling from Collingwood at the MCG.

Hurn also blamed a lack of flexibility in the way the Eagles play after his milestone game was ruined by the 45-point defeat to the Magpies.

“When you get beaten badly, everything looks really bad but today it just looked like we just weren’t playing as a team pretty much,” Hurn said.

“And that’s what we’re always trying to talk about. To try to get better at understanding game scenarios. But we’ve probably had three or four of those efforts this year, which is just not acceptable.”

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Hurn said the Eagles were struggling to adapt to changes in the way matches were playing out.

“I think just at the moment if things aren’t quite going not so much our way, but if the game changes we don’t tend to want to adapt to it,” he told 6PR.

Both teams made a guard of honour for Shannon Hurn.
Camera IconBoth teams made a guard of honour for Shannon Hurn. Credit: Darrian Traynor/via AFL Photos

“Just thinking that it will change back to what we think. You can’t do that if you want to be a successful team.”

Hurn said every player needed to realise they could contribute to turning the tide.

“Sometimes you can look for other people to flick the switch, or someone else to set an example by doing something,” he said.

“As an individual, you can always impact the game. Blocks, tackles, smothers, work rate. And at the moment we’re just quite inconsistent in that I think.”

The seventh-placed Eagles face Melbourne (home), Fremantle and Brisbane (Gabba) in the final three rounds and Hurn believed they were good enough to sew up a finals berth.

“While today was really disappointing, I think our last two and a half weeks have been some reasonable progress on how we’re trying to play. Better work rate,” he said.

“So I think if we get that right, hopefully we can win enough games and then hopefully play finals. And then anything can happen.”

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