Former West Coast coach Adam Simpson has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Hawthorn’s move to send Tom Barrass to full forward, saying it was clear that Andrew McQualter “didn’t like it”.

Eagles coach Andrew McQualter expressed his displeasure with counterpart Sam Mitchell’s decision to send the premiership defender into attack for the final quarter of their 50-point loss at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.

Barrass has kicked only one goal in his 157-game career, having made a name for himself as one of the premier defenders in the AFL.

Asked about what he thought of the move in his post-game press conference, McQualter paused for a long moment before responding.

“I probably shouldn’t say because I don’t know what was going on in their team to be honest,” he said.

“That’s their prerogative I suppose.”

Asked about why he paused, McQualter said: “I haven’t seen Tom Barrass play forward too often in his career.”

Further pressed and asked if he found the move disrespectful, McQualter said: “I’m not going to speak to what the Hawks do and their decision making.”

Simpson said McQualter’s reaction made it clear he didn’t appreciate the move by Mitchell.

“What’s he trying to say? He didn’t like it,” Simpson told SEN.

“If you want to get across ‘I’m not happy about it, I thought it was disrespectful’, I think that was a great way to answer a question without having to answer it.

“For McQualter to say that, he wasn’t happy about it. Which sometimes you think, ‘That’s the other coach, who cares what message it sends?’ Obviously, they weren’t happy.”

Asked if it was disrespectful, Simpson said: “I wouldn’t overthink it.

“What would be interesting if the game was on the line, it’s three-quarter time and it’s a final, I don’t think we’re going to see Barrass forward.”

Mitchell defended the decision, saying it was part of a move to add versatility to Barrass’ game.

“Sometimes having that flexibility is important for us. We’d like to be able to do that, we obviously do that with James Sicily and giving Blake Hardwick continued exposure as a defender,” he said.

“TB we haven’t tried forward but if we need a contest in front of the ball at some stage then having him go forward is something that we want to be able to have the option if it’s viable for us.

“He didn’t look completely comfortable there so it’s something we’re going to have to try to expose him to a little bit more over the coming weeks if we get the opportunity.”

However, Mitchell did admit he wanted Barrass to kick his second career goal against his former side.

“I mean of course, I think he’s kicked one goal in his career, and it was from a 50m penalty so to get him to kick one would be great,” he said.