The “obvious choices” to replace Adam Simpson at the West Coast Eagles

Following the news that the West Coast Eagles and coach Adam Simpson have parted ways, SEN WA’s Tim Gossage has named some potential replacements.

Gossage believes the Eagles will reach out to a number of candidates as the club looks to move fast in finding Simpson’s replacement.

“The obvious choices are Dean Cox if they can prise him out of Sydney and there’s no guarantee that will happen but Don Pyke would be fully aware of that,” Gossage told SEN's Dwayne's World.

“I think they’ll make the call to Geelong’s Chris Scott and see where he stands at Geelong.

“I think they’ll speak to Jaymie Graham who is a former assistant at West Coast and is now down at Fremantle as that intellectual property that Fremantle has clearly got at the moment would be a huge boost.

“There’s then Ash Hansen who is a premiership player at West Coast that has been involved at the Western Bulldogs and Carlton with quite a lot of success as is starting to be proved this ear with the Blues.”

As for who will become Simpson’s interim replacement for the remainder of the 2024 season, Gossage says the Eagles are yet to make that decision but believes there are two live chances with Matthew Knights and Jarrad Schofield looking the most likely.

“Unsure who coaches for the rest of the year and I’m sure there will be some speculation around that decision once the club speaks,” Gossage added.

“I would imagine that it would either be Matthew Knights or Jarrad Schofield and I probably wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Matthew Knights only because I think Matthew has nothing to gain by going back into the senior coaches ranks and I think Schofield has the want to do that some day and he doesn’t seen any benefit in coaching this team for seven weeks at West Coast even though he is a senior coach and has played for the club.

“There’s a number of choices there but as far as an interim coach is concerned, we are waiting for that decision.”