West Coast co-captain Liam Duggan says the Eagles are embracing Andrew McQualter’s ‘not pretty’ gameplan

West Coast co-captain Liam Duggan says it took him time to adapt to the the fast, dynamic and “not pretty” football new coach Andrew McQualter wants them to play in 2025. McQualter has made no secret of his intentions to overhaul the way the Eagles play as he looks to turn them from a side that has won 10 games in three seasons into a premiership contender. Trademark elements of the Richmond-style play McQualter helped implement as an assistant in the Tigers’ premiership years of 2017, 2019 and 2020 have become noticable across his first pre-season. The Eagles implemented it well against Richmond in match simulation when they kicked six second-term goals on the back of forward half pressure, while there were glimpses in their intraclub game on Saturday. The fast ball movement is a contrast to the system under previous coach Adam Simpson and one Duggan said he’d enjoyed learning. “It’s pretty fast, dynamic (gameplan). It’s not pretty, but we’ve adapted quite well,” Duggan said. “I probably took a while to adapt to it. Some of the old habits come into your game as we’re going through the pre-season but I think we’re starting to see the product of what it is and we’re all finding our own little groove in that gameplan as well. “I’m having a lot of fun playing it, that’s for sure.” McQualter’s new style comes with the risk on the turnover and opens the Eagles up to be hurt by teams on the counterattack. Duggan said the errors they make through learning would make them a better team in the long term. “To change habits you’ve got to go hard one way or the other and I think we’ve done that really well,” Duggan said. “What we found against Richmond was it probably didn’t look exactly like what we’re going after, we found it in the second (term) at times today. “The best teams they make more mistakes than anyone, it’s just their defence behind it and how they mop up and keep moving forward. We’re playing that style and seeing how well we can do it.” Duggan has spent much of his career as a defender but moved into the midfield in recent years because of injuries. The 28-year-old has been at the centre bounces this pre-season and said even when dual club champion Elliot Yeo returns he’s likely to stay there. “I started there in the pre-season while Yeo was out there still so it’s something that we looked to do at the start and we’ve through with it,” Duggan said “That’s where I will start the early part of the season at the moment. I’ve really enjoyed it through the midfield too. “We’ve gone to a bit of a different look, there’s a role in there that really suits me so at the moment that’s worked quite well.”