Why can’t the Eagles fly?

In the past few years, since Adam Simpson took over as coach1, the Eagles have played 9 games at the MCG and won only 3 of them, a meagre 33.3% win rate. Meanwhile they’ve won 75.6% of their games at Subiaco.

All up, the Eagles have won 53% of their interstate games since 2014, just scraping into positive territory. Their record interstate is comparable to the Cats and Crows.

The difference between the Eagles’ win percentage in their home state (75.6%) and interstate (53%) is 22.6% – the third largest in the league, but not a million miles away from some other quality teams.

The Eagles do seem to struggle on the road, but they’ve still won more than they’ve lost interstate under Simpson. Is there something special about the MCG that they find difficult? We might have to wait until next year to have another look at their performance on the biggest stage.

 

  1. This post is in no way a criticism of Adam Simpson, I’ve just taken the 2014-present period as a convenient marker of the current era for the Eagles.

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