Scotty Watters reviews the Derby from the weekend!

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by Facebook.
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Introducing Meta Glasses. You have questions, they've got answers.

**Mark Duffield** (0:36)
Hey Meta, what's the capital of Peru?

**Scotty Watters** (0:38)
Lima.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:39)
How do you say, where's the restroom in Spanish? Dónde está el baño?
Hey Meta, is a hot dog a sandwich?

**Scotty Watters** (0:47)
Technically no.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:49)
Spiritually, yes. Hey Meta, what should I do with my life? That's one of life's biggest questions. What do you think?
Ask anything with the new Meta Glasses.

**Mark Duffield** (1:10)
Yes, he played for West Coast, he played for Sydney, he played for Fremantle, he coached Subiaco to Waffle Premierships, and he coached the St Kilda Saints as well. Scotty Watters joins us on the show. Scotty, welcome.

**Scotty Watters** (1:24)
Good morning, Duff. How are you?

**Mark Duffield** (1:26)
I'm very well today. Thank you, mate. What were your key takeaways from the Western Derby?

**Scotty Watters** (1:33)
Well, Fremantle are fit and have enormous belief. Their second halves have been phenomenal, really, for a number of weeks now. Their first quarters need work, but when they drop the accelerator, they're incomparable to any other side in the league when they're absolutely going at their best, particularly in their second half. Harley Reid's performance was good for West Coast.
Kelly was solid. Herbert was good. Some things to like early for West Coast Duff, but the power of Fremantle was on display in the second half.

**Mark Duffield** (2:05)
Is Harley Reid hard done by umpires, do you think, Scott?

**Scotty Watters** (2:10)
No, I don't. I think you create reputation, and right or wrong, he's probably forced umpires to look at the way that he plays, a little bit more closely. So he's drawn that attention to himself. So they're on heightened alert, I think, when they umpire Harley Reid, because particularly early, not as much this year, I don't think, but early on in his tenure, he would just do some silly things.
That would be an indiscretion that the umpires would see. I think he's improved slightly this year, but he's guilty of his own reputation a little bit now, and it's going to take some work to undo it.

**Mark Duffield** (2:54)
Yeah, there's little things like the little knee drop on Luke Ryan over the boundary, isn't it? That's the stuff that he's still got to get out of his game. I think they did miss a high tackle on him. I think, I can't remember who got him, but there was clearly an arm high in that. He's got to be careful. He doesn't suffer from what the Giants call the Toby tax on Toby Green, doesn't he, as he goes forward?

**Scotty Watters** (3:16)
Yeah, and probably to clarify, answer to your question too, is he hard done by? There is no doubt he should have got that free kick, but reputation, umpire is a human, believe it or not.
They watch games, they watch players, they build up relationships with players, and they just know now that over the journey, there's times when he crosses over the line and does silly things and sometimes that will go against him, when potentially he should get a free kick. So the Toby Green tax, don't worry, there's a Harley Reed tax going around right now.

**Mark Duffield** (3:49)
The Eagles turnovers and they're turnovers that leave them in very vulnerable positions to counterattack. As a coach, did you feel you could shift the skill level of players and the skill execution of players, or do you feel it's just a matter you have to get to a point where you're in a position to change the personnel?

**Scotty Watters** (4:08)
That's a great question. There's a few things. There is skill level of players and you can improve players kicking to a degree, but ultimately, when they're coming to you 18 years of age and plus, already a lot of the work has been done or not done. So some players can improve marginally, but if you're not a great kick, you're not going to become a super kick.
So some of it's personnel, but also some of it's game plan. And at the moment, we've seen some improvements defensively for West Coast. They haven't been blown out of the water as many times this year as they were last year. If you have a look at their defensive profile, you could argue that, yep, it's improved this year. Offensively, you've got a young coach who's probably also saying, hey, we've still got to have confidence to pull the trigger, you know, on inside 45 kicks and being aggressive.