COACH Paul Roos says the gap between the AFL’s top teams and those near the bottom of the ladder are widening in an 18-team competition.

Speaking post-match after his side’s 93-point loss to the West Coast Eagles at the MCG on Sunday, Roos said the Eagles showed exactly why they were considered one of the genuine contenders in 2014 with their powerful display over the Demons.

“Last year the Eagles had a lot of injuries and a lot of people tipped them to win the premiership last year and they’ve got those players back, so they’re a top four to six side,” he said.

“You can see when you’ve got an 18-team competition, the difference between the best and the worst [is greater].

“You talk about Melbourne as a 17^th team in the competition last year … there’s a big gap. You can’t run away from that and you can’t hide – that’s the AFL competition now, as opposed to a 12-team competition. There is a huge gap between top and the bottom – there’s no question about it.”

Roos said former coach John Worsfold had West Coast primed for a premiership last year, before injury hit the club. But he indicated that new coach Adam Simpson had inherited and was now overseeing a list capable of making an impact this year. Roos added that the ruck combination of Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui, plus Callum Sinclair, was proving to be an imposing force.

“They’ve still got a balance of experience and their younger guys have got better, so the way they’ve … [played] in the first two games have been really good,” Roos said.

“When you get smashed at centre bounces, it just puts you on the back foot and they’ve got a couple of very, very good ruckmen in Cox and Naitanui and they’re a high quality team.”