Eagles put road wobbles to rest
WEST Coast has eased concerns surrounding its interstate form with an emphatic 38-point win against bottomfour Hawthorn at the MCG.
The Eagles headed into the contest having lost all three of their games on the road in 2021 by an average of 41 points.
If they wanted to be taken seriously as a top-eight threat, they had to take care of the Hawks – and that’s exactly what they did in front of just 15,277 fans on Mother’s Day.
Oscar Allen was forced to play in defence due to the absence of injured star trio Jeremy McGovern, Tom Barrass and Shannon Hurn, but it barely impacted the Eagles in attack as they finished with nine goalkickers. Brendon Ah Chee led the way with a career-high four majors.
West Coast was also missing Liam Ryan, Luke Shuey and Elliot Yeo, but the likes of Tim Kelly, Dom Sheed and Andrew Gaff picked up the slack to ensure their absence wasn’t too keenly felt.
But the result could have come at a cost for the Eagles with Josh Kennedy finishing the game with a huge ice pack on his right calf.
The first quarter wasn’t one for the time capsule, though, with both sides committing countless turnovers and failing to kick a goal, which was especially frustrating for West Coast who doubled the hosts for inside 50s (16-8) in the opening term.
However, the gulf in class became painfully apparent in the second period as West Coast blew the Hawks off the park.
Powered by the clearance work of Nic Naitanui and Kelly, the Eagles capitalised on their continued territory dominance with an emphatic sevengoals-to-three quarter to take a 27-point lead at halftime.
The game started slowly with 10 straight behinds and it wasn’t until the three-minute mark of the second quarter that the first goal of the game came courtesy of West Coast’s Ah Chee, who nailed it from 48m out on the run.
He repeated the dose from the goalsquare a few minutes later and 10 goals in total were kicked for the quarter.
When the game was desperately crying out for some exhilaration early in the second quarter, Jamaine Jones answered the call as he zoomed up the middle of the ground and engaged in a blistering one-two with Josh Kennedy before sprinting to 30m out and slotting a ripper to give the Eagles a 13-point lead.
There may not be a worse umpiring non-decision this season than the one that occurred 10 minutes into the first quarter as Changkuoth Jiath tucked the ball under his arm, took his West Coast opponent on, failed, had the ball stripped off him, yet wasn’t penalised.