Eagles Outlast Another Comeback Attempt
A week after claiming a derby win over Fremantle by the barest of one-point margins, the Eagles again snuck past the line when they recovered from a remarkable Bulldogs comeback to record an eight point victory at Docklands.
The Eagles led by 43 points at half-time and extended their lead to 50 by the ten minute mark of the third quarter, before the Bulldogs piled on 11 of the next 13 goals to take the lead heading into time-on in the final quarter.
Facing a potentially humiliating defeat, West Coast were able to settle and kick the final two goals of the match, with Dean Cox booting the sealer with just a minute to play.
Cox shortened his Brownlow odds with a comprehensive best on ground display that saw the Eagles ruckman control the ruck to set up the Eagles lead in the early part of the game, before taking important marks at either end of the ground with the result on the line.
His performance would have gone some way to easing the burden of guilt he would have felt going into the game after playing the villain in a bizarre accident during the week.
The Eagles’ selection plans were thrown asunder after full-forward Josh Kennedy was forced to withdraw from the game due to an eye injury courtesy of a stray tennis ball. Kennedy suffered bleeding behind the eye which was set to rule him out for a fortnight, with Cox later acknowledging he had been responsible for the incident.
Kennedy had booted a personal best ten goals in the previous meeting between the two sides earlier in the year when West Coast made their biggest statement of the season with a 123 point thrashing of the Bulldogs.
Kennedy’s unavailability was compounded with the omission of Nic Naitanui who was rested. Naitanui had carried a shoulder injury for much of the year, with the Eagles believing the week off would be beneficial ahead of a finals campaign.
That opened the door for the Eagles’ third selection of the 2010 draft, Scott Lycett, to make his debut. The young ruckman was selected with the 29th pick of the National draft and completed the highly touted triumvirate of players that were seen to be the future of the Eagles. Tom Swift joined Lycett as the other inclusion for West Coast.
The Bulldogs, on the other hand, moved nearly a third of their side as they looked for the combination that could keep their season alive. After reaching the preliminary final of the previous three years, the Bulldogs had fallen off the pace in 2011, sitting a game and a half outside the top eight with five matches to play.
Dylan Addison, Lukas Markovic, Jarrod Grant and Lindsay Gilbee were all dropped after the defeat to Sydney, while the Bulldogs also lost Adam Cooney, Shaun Higgins and Nathan Djerrkura to injury.
Robert Murphy returned from injury and Justin Sherman was recalled after serving a four game suspension for racially abusing young Gold Coast player Joel Wilkinson. Ed Barlow, Jordan Roughead, Brennan Stack, James Mulligan and Ryan Hargrave were the other players brought in before Jayden Schofield became inclusion number eight when Dale Morris was forced to withdraw before the opening bounce with a groin strain.
Lycett started in the goal square for the Eagles and he couldn’t have asked for a better start to his AFL career, kicking a goal with his first kick after just 47 seconds.
Twenty minutes later, the Eagles had six goals on the board and had opened up a 33 point lead. A late Daniel Giansiracusa major cut the Eagles lead to 27 at the first break, which was short of what West Coast deserved. Such was the dominance around the ground in the opening stanza, the Eagles finished the quarter with 52 more disposals, 12 more contested possessions, eight more marks, 27 more handball receives and six more inside 50s.
Five of the Eagles’ six goals for the term came from direct from the stoppage as Cox was superior.
West Coast continued on with their momentum after quarter time with Scott Lycett bagging a second goal in his debut. Andrew Gaff, Dean Cox and Matt Rosa all had 16 disposals in the first half, while Matthew Boyd and Daniel Cross were doing the best they could for the Bulldogs with 14 and 10 disposals, respectively, in the second term.
Luke Shuey opened the scoring in the third term with the Eagles’ 11th goal and at 50 points up, the game appeared to be in the Eagles control.
But with their season clinging to life support, the Bulldogs found something through their experienced leaders as Barry Hall asserted himself up forward. Hall booted the first two goals of an amazing run that saw the game completely flip on its head.
For the first two and a half quarters, the Bulldogs had tried to match the Eagles forward press with counter attack that repeatedly came unstuck. Midway through the third term, Eade instructed his men to go man-on-man, and the bigger bodies of the Bulldogs started to bully the younger Eagles.
Matthew Boyd, Daniel Cross, Callan Ward and Daniel Giansiracusa all got busy at the stoppages as the Bulldogs had all of the forward play and conjured up goal after goal. The Bulldogs restricted the Eagle lead to 19 points before Mark LeCras bobbed up on the brink of three-quarter time to give the Eagles some space.
It would prove only a moment of respite as the Bulldogs continued on their way at the start of the final term. Barry Hall added two more goals, either side of a Callan Ward major to have the Bulldogs within a kick. Giansiracusa then booted his third goal of the game to bring the Bulldogs level and then after eight tense minutes, his fourth put the Bulldogs in front for the first time in the game.
For all their efforts in the game, the Eagles looked done but they mustered up some final heroic moments, led by their star ruckman.
Cox took back control in the ruck and with the Bulldogs continuing to press, he placed himself behind the ball to stall the Bulldogs momentum. Jack Darling belied his 17 games of experience to deliver a clutch goal and bring West Coast back to parity, with behinds to Andrew Embley and Mark LeCras inching the Eagles back ahead.
With the game now on the line, Cox had the final say in the game taking a strong pack mark at the top of the Eagles goal square to ice the game.
The Eagles ruckman finished with 27 disposals, 13 marks, 37 hit-outs, 11 contested possessions, four clearances and the sealing goal in a clear best on ground performance. Six of Cox’ 13 marks were contested – just one less than the Bulldogs managed as an entire team.
Andrew Gaff and Matt Priddis were the leading ball winners for the Eagles with 31 each, with Gaff adding nine inside 50s and two goals, while Priddis produced nine clearances to go with 14 tackles. Matt Rosa continued his strong first half to end with 30 possessions, while Mark LeCras was the best forward up front with three majors.
Matthew Boyd was a presence all day for the Bulldogs to pick up 40 disposals, with 11 clearances. Robert Murphy was the next best with 26 disposals and then Giansiracusa with 22 and four goals. Barry Hall kicked five goals as he got a handle of Glass and Mackenzie up forward.
Eagles coach John Worsfold was obviously relieved to come away with the win after the Eagles gave up a large margin. “Well, we were pretty pleased to win, we came here to try and win the game. So that was our number one focus.”
Worsfold acknowledged that his side struggled to adapt with the change in style from the Bulldogs, who he said ‘tackled harder and were prepared to get in and win the loose ball’. But Worsfold also praised his team for being able to respond when they fell behind.
“That’s another part of showing where they’re at and even getting behind and making sure they just kept grinding away and doing enough to grab the win.”
The defeat all but ended the Bulldogs’ finals hopes as they fell two games and percentage behind the Dockers who were occupying eighth spot. While the Bulldogs were no longer considered contenders, the race for the top eight was still very much on after Fremantle were thrashed by Hawthorn at home. The Dockers gave up the first eight goals in the game and were never likely from that point on.
The Hawks maintained their hold of third sport, ahead of Carlton who had to do things the hard way in their come-from-behind win over North Melbourne. The Eagles win kept them in the hunt in the top four, but ultimately confirmed the race for the double chance would be a race in five as they skipped two and a half games clear of Sydney in sixth place, who had the bye.
St Kilda’s late season resurgence continued with a 20 point win over an inaccurate Gold Coast as the teams vying for finals all stumbled.
As well as North Melbourne and the Bulldogs, Essendon were thrashed by Collingwood in a rollercoaster match. After the two teams traded the first eight goals, the Bombers booted the next five either side of quarter time to lead by 30 points early in the second term.
However, Collingwood then orchestrated a remarkable 104-point turnaround with 21 of the final 26 goals in the game to run out 74 point winners. But even that performance wasn’t the most outstanding of the weekend.
Geelong fell just four points short of the greatest winning margin in VFL/AFL history as they destroyed Melbourne by 186 points at Kardinia Park. The Cats had established a 114 point lead by half time, “easing off” in the second half as they sauntered their way to the heavy win.
Steve Johnson booted seven goals from 34 disposals, Tom Hawkins kicked five, Joel Selwood tallied 43 disposals and 15 Geelong players picked up 20 touches or more as the Cats racked up 510 for the match – 230 more than the Demons.
The fallout from the game would continue in the days to follow with Melbourne coach Dean Bailey becoming the second senior coach this season to be given the axe.
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