Former West Coast coach Adam Simpson was an interested observer for the debut post-match press conference of his former pupil Dean Cox after Sydney lost to Hawthorn on Friday night.

Cox went down in his first outing as a full-time senior coach against the Hawks, losing by 20 points in the AFL’s season opener.

The former West Coast ruck had been 2012 premiership coach John Longmire’s understudy for six years, and had long been seen as his successor.

Prior to moving across the country, Cox had spent 17 years as a player and then assistant coach at the Eagles, where he worked under Simpson for three years.

Cox was understandably flat after his first game in charge.

“I’m a little bit disappointed,” he said in his post-match presser.

“To play against a really good footy team with our group, to come back and — certainly in the third quarter — and then get to a (good) position in the last quarter and then let it slide the way we did was disappointing.

Speaking on SEN on Monday, Simpson said the Cox he saw in the post-match press conference sounded nothing like the one he knew at the Eagles.

“He sounded really disappointed. He’s (usually) so (positive),” Simpson said.

“He was with us as an assistant coach and a player, and he was like, ‘We’re going to win by 10 goals today’, and it was like, ‘Mate, just cool down a bit — you’re our ruck coach’.

“And I saw him in the box with Horse (Longmire) so many times celebrating little things. And now he’s just taking on a lot more.

“He’ll reflect on that; whether it’s ‘that’s fine’ (and) he’ll take that in his stride, or ‘next time I need to make sure I just give us a bit of a bounce, because it’s Round 1 (Opening Round), the start of a marathon’.

“At three-quarter time, they were in that game.

“(It will be) interesting (to see) how he develops in his press conferences.”

Cox readily admitted to imperfection in the hot seat.

“It’s a little bit different; you can always have decisions that you can throw up, but you actually have to action them now,” Cox said.

“On top of that, it’s always about the collective of your message.

“Previously, it was specifically to a line or a group of players. Now, it’s to the whole team.

“It was my first official game so no doubt I’ve got some things wrong. We’ll have a look at that.

“We review not only the way the players play, but what we do as well, and we want to make sure that we’re giving them the best chance possible.”

Still, Cox remains realistic about the road ahead as he looks to implement his defence-first game plan.

“It will take a little bit of time. It’ll be clunky,” Cox said.

“For parts of it, we were really good. We forced them long down the line and stopped their uncontested mark chains.

“And then for parts of it, we let ourselves down again.

“That’s the cohesion that we need between all lines.

“We need to make sure that we all know we defend as an 18-man unit. That’s really important. The best teams do it.”

- With AAP