West Coast Eagles to go with just one ruckman in Bailey Williams for clash against Greater Western Sydney

West Coast have abandoned their two-ruck policy with Bailey Williams to fly solo against Greater Western Sydney at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

Callum Jamieson has been dropped after collecting just three touches and 10 hit-outs before being subbed out against North Melbourne last weekend, while first-choice ruck Nic Naitanui is still sidelined with an Achilles injury and draftee Harry Barnett is not yet ready for the top-level.

It leaves the returning Jake Waterman as the likely man to partner Williams against Giant Matt Flynn, having done so in the pre-season game against Adelaide last month.

Eagles coach Adam Simpson said they would try something different, having only played the one ruckman last year on three occasions because of injuries.

“Can Bailey play a full game as a singular ruck? That’s his challenge now,” Simpson said.

“Looking at the Giants’ side, they do the same thing.

“It may be different on a weekly basis but we’ll go with that this week.”

When asked who would pinch hit when Williams is rested, a coy Simpson said: “We’ll have to wait and see. I’ll leave a little bit to the imagination.”

The Eagles have also named their fourth debutant to start the season with pick no.14 Elijah Hewett to play as the tactical sub with speedster Jack Petruccelle dropped.

“Ideally you play in the starting 22 but where he’s at it’s a perfect fit,” Simpson said.

“He had a pretty good game last week against Claremont and he’s AFL ready, probably not full game levels just yet.

“But if he had to come on early I reckon we back him in anyway.”

The heat has come hard at West Coast this week after their disappointing loss to the Kangaroos, with former Melbourne forward Garry Lyon describing them as the “Rest Coast Eagles”.

Simpson shook off the criticism, saying it was part of being in the cut-throat AFL industry.

“If you don’t perform well you’ve got criticism and then you move on. I think we accept it and try to do something about it,” he said.

“The media doesn’t influence what we do. We weren’t happy with the way we played, in particular, the second quarter and we think we’re better than that.

“We’re not the same side as last year but we’ve got to prove to ourselves as much as anyone that we’re capable of more.”

The Eagles’ ball movement has been at the centre of much of the criticism, but Simpson identified their biggest problem was they fumbled too often.

“Our pressure rating on the weekend, it was second in the comp ... someone said it on the TV, it’s a no-fumble league and we’re fumbling too much,” Simpson said.

“Putting yourself in that position to be clean and take on a tackle or express yourself in a way you can move the ball without fumbling, that’s probably the biggest thing we need to work on.

“I think we’re better than what we were on the weekend, but it happened against Adelaide, in the pre-season game as well. So we’re working on that.

“And fundamentals of touch and skill and all that sort of stuff is paramount to what we’re doing in our program. We just haven’t seen it on game day as much as we would have liked.”