Round’s monster match

Eagles victory secures finals spot as Demons suffer heartache

WEST Coast have scraped into the AFL finals – now the fun can really start.

An unbelievable final round in the AFL which promised so much delivered by the bucket load as teams sweated on their ultimate ladder positons right to the very end.

Melbourne, Essendon, West Coast and even Melbourne all had something to play for heading in to the last round.

The Eagles went into last night’s match needing to beat Adelaide by at least 19-23 points in order to bump Melbourne out of eighth spot on percentage.

West Coast were cruising at 41 points up late in the third quarter. But when Adelaide closed the margin to 17 points with five minutes left, Melbourne were 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 winning 15.10 (100) to 10.11 (71).

The result means Melbourne, who 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 their last two games.

They will take on Greater Western Sydney in a home qualifying final.

West Coast face Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in a cutthroat semi-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 they finished 21 points ahead of Adelaide. The Crows kicked three-straight goals to close the margin to 17 points.

But when when Jetta ducked and weaved through traffic to nail a goal, it put the Eagles back in the box seat to finish eighth.

A sellout crowd of 39,367 witnessed the final AFL game at Subiaco Oval, ahead of next year’s move to the new Perth Stadium.