West Coast had a stinker last weekend against Essendon, so let’s not make excuses for it.

But some of the criticism got a bit personal, didn’t it?

Mummies’ boys? That sounded a bit like ill-informed Eastern States criticism.

The Eagles copped their right whack on the scoreboard from the Bombers but if not being able to win a game of footy after you have flown over the Nullarbor Plain makes you a mummies’ boy then there are plenty of them “over there”, not just here.

The Nullarbor is 1100km wide and adds more than two hours to every flight headed either east or west over it. West Coast and Fremantle will do it a minimum 10 times each per year, more if away finals are involved. It is the biggest single competitive disadvantage our teams face. It does not mean they cannot win but neither does the number of times they do it mean the disadvantage ceases to exist.

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Usually it means they learn to manage it better.

And the statistics show that. Fremantle, despite an horrific 2016 are 28-1-29 under Ross Lyon in away games, 2-1 this year. West Coast are 18-1-17 away under Adam Simpson.

How do teams fare coming across the Nullarbor the other way? Generally not nearly as well.

Disregard Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast because most of their games here have been played during formative and development seasons.

Of the other 14 clubs, just one (Geelong with a 52 per cent win ratio) has a winning record at Subiaco Oval. Two (Port Adelaide and Hawthorn) have respectable records. Seven (Carlton, Adelaide, Sydney, North, Collingwood, Richmond and St Kilda) have struggled. Brisbane, Essendon, the Bulldogs, and Melbourne have dire records here.

Essendon have lost their last six. The Bulldogs have won one of their last 10 but it was a final. Melbourne have lost their last 17.

But teams from the east come here only once or twice a year, so their failures are waved away as momentary glitches on football’s toughest road trip. For our teams every away trip is football’s toughest road trip, so an inability to win on the other side of the Nullarbor is season-threatening. The reason you won’t hear the clubs here talk about it is there is no point. They either learn to cope or they fail.

Even in their best seasons the Eagles and Dockers have hiccups on the road. The 1992 premiership Eagles were flogged by St Kilda at Waverley, beaten by Fitzroy in Hobart and were kept goalless for three quarters against Footscray at the Whitten Oval. In 1994 they were belted by Hawthorn at Waverley, Collingwood at the MCG and Carlton at Princes Park.

In 2006 Collingwood and Port Adelaide who finished seventh and 12th, beat them by more than six goals. In that season the Eagles produced one of the great away records in history, losing just twice outside of Perth.

None of this excuses the Eagles’ effort against Essendon, it just highlights the nonsense that the insulting nature of the criticism was. The Eagles will either fix their road form or their 2017 hopes will perish. But by any objective measure the two WA teams have to be among the AFL’s most resilient just to be competitive, let alone successful. The only thing you need to have to know that is a copy of the fixtures and a map of Australia.