Eagles beat Crows, snare finals spot and break Dees’ hearts
WEST Coast has scraped into the finals after beating Adelaide by 29 points in yesterday’s clash at Subiaco.
The Eagles went into the match needing to beat Adelaide by at least 19-23 points to bump Melbourne out of eighth spot on percentage.
West Coast was cruising at 41 points up late in the third quarter, but when Adelaide closed the margin to 17 points with five minutes left, Melbourne was in eighth spot on the live ladder.
However, late goals to Lewis Jetta and Jack Darling ensured West Coast won by enough to leapfrog the Demons, with the Eagles victorious 15.10 (100) to 10.11 (71).
The result means Melbourne, which suffered an upset loss to Collingwood on Saturday, finished ninth — just 0.5 percentage points adrift of the Eagles. Adelaide finished on top of the ladder despite losing its last two games.
The Crows will take on Greater Western Sydney in a home qualifying final and West Coast faces Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in a cut-throat elimination final. The Crows had little to play for, given they were already guaranteed to finish top courtesy of Geelong’s win over GWS on Saturday.
And their attitude mirrored the situation in the opening term, with Adelaide laying just five tackles compared to West Coast’s 16.
The Crows started with a handy breeze, but West Coast entered quarter-time with an 18-point advantage.
But most of the drama came in the final term, when West Coast needed to ensure it finished 21 points ahead of Adelaide.
The Crows kicked threestraight goals to close the margin to 17 points.
But when Jetta ducked and weaved through traffic to nail a goal, it put the Eagles back in the box seat to finish eighth.
West Coast forward Josh Kennedy, who needed five goals to secure a thirdstraight Coleman medal, finished with 1.4 and Sydney’s Lance Franklin won the award with 69 goals.
A very happy sellout crowd of 39,367 witnessed the final AFL game at Subiaco Oval.