West Coast coach Adam Simpson has declared key defender Tom Barrass deserves to be selected in the All-Australian team after another outstanding display in a losing team.

Barrass received votes from all three Glendinning-Allan Medal voters for his performance at full-back, where he had 14 intercept possessions and three of his 12 marks were contested.

Having led a backline that has been under siege all season, Simpson said he deserves recognition.

“I’m campaigning now officially for Barrass to be All-Australian because he’s not just winning his position, he’s dominating it as a full-back. I think he was the highest-ranked player today again,” Simpson said.

“He’s just in the prime of his career. He’s a leader, he plays the game the right way and he’s got the balance between defending and going for his marks. All credit to him.

“He’s playing on the best forward in the opposition team every week and he’s not just holding his own, he is dominating. His leadership has been exceptional.

“We could have folded a lot worse than we are at the moment. There was that five or six-week period when we were down on personnel and we were getting touched up and I think he’s been part of the resolve that we’ve shown.”

Simpson said it was clear his team played with spirit and applied pressure, and he felt they played as well as they could.

He pointed to the club’s lengthy injury list which had Jamaine Jones (back) added to it during the game. Simpson admitted star ruckman Nic Naitanui faces a challenge to be available against Geelong after playing under duress in the latter stage of the season.

Fremantle ruckman Sean Darcy was best on ground after winning 56 hit-outs by himself, compared to West Coast’s combined 28. Simpson said Naitanui needed a break.

“He’s playing because the club needs him, so we’ve got to be careful and don’t put any unnecessary risk on his career or next year,” Simpson said.

“He needs a good break, a good pre-season and he can come back next year ready to go. We’ve got to look at it (not playing him). We’ve tried to respect the season as best as we could.

“There’s been opportunities to maybe rest or shut down players. But to be honest, we’ve got probably 15 injuries at the moment. Some players are playing sore. I’m not whinging. It’s just he way it is.”