Jezza’s Journal: West Coast Eagles champion declares the senior players need to lift, the frustrating watch from the sidelines and the ever changing AFL fixture

West Coast Eagles champion Jeremy McGovern is keeping his home town Albany in the loop each week from the Gold Coast AFL hub. Pick up your Advertiser every Thursday to read Jezza’s Journal. A second game on the sidelines was frustrating to say the least. The main priority for the ankle was rest as much as possible and I did as much of that as I could until Thursday night. Friday morning was the captain’s run, which was a bit more footy stuff, like changing direction to test it. Being my right foot, kicking was a bit of an issue and after that session it blew right up and was pretty stiff and sore that afternoon, which basically ruled me out. Going into a five-day break was another reason to remain cautious and make sure I was 100 per cent right for Richmond. Now that game is not happening and looking at it now, I could have possibly played with a longer break but we didn’t know we were going to be playing on Saturday. I got to go to the game and play some sort of role, in the rooms before and afterwards and at half-time, and I watched the game up in the stands with the younger boys. Charlie Dixon is playing really good footy and it was frustrating I was not out there helping Tommy Barrass out. Port had a team focus on Charlie, the smalls were blocking for him and they were looking to kick it to him and he was clunking everything and you’ve got to respect Charlie for that. Losing is hard to swallow. We want to win but we judge ourselves on performance and at the moment, we are not performing and not winning either. People think we are blaming the hub but it’s not that at all. Everyone is trying as hard as we can and it would be different if we were losing and playing well but we are just not performing at the level we think we can right now. I think we lost three in a row in 2018 when we won the flag and we haven’t lost three in a row a lot under Simmo. The team reviews have been stern and as senior players, there is a handful, if not 10 of us, not performing as we should. We knew it would be different coming over here and the whole group, the entire club, has had to step up. We only have three other coaches other than Simmo over here but it’s not just coaching. The coaches and support staff are not just managing the footy side of things but managing what’s for dinner, our families, how we get to places and what we do, so there is a fair bit involved. Our focus quickly changed to Richmond and as it was a Thursday night game, we did all our reviews and recovery on Sunday, which is usually a day off. All the planning was for Thursday and then halfway through our main session on Monday, we got the message about the fixture change. The fitness staff and coaches changed a few things around and with the extra couple of days, I’m extremely confident I’ll play. The landscape is changing every day and we are not looking too far ahead. The best thing for footy looks like Perth, Queensland and South Australia will have hubs. I still can’t surf but I’ve been playing golf a couple of times a week, and I really am trying to get better. We had a team dinner on Tuesday night and the more we are here, the more you get tuned into a bit of routine. FaceTime with the kids is normal; I’m just trying to find new ways to entertain Hudson and Marlee. Speaking of family, Mitch seems like he’s in a really good space, enjoying his footy and they’ve ground out a few wins. I’m normally the one reaching out to him but we do stay in regular contact and as long as he’s happy, that’s the main thing. Carlton have been under the pump the last few years and I can get a bit of a feel of what it’s like, now we are losing games. I’m starting to really miss stuff. I just miss jumping in my own car and going down to the beach listening to my music. Booking a car with the radio on is just not the same. Hopefully we can turn things around on Saturday.