1. The chasm between the top team in the competition and one sitting near the foot of table was evident when the game was broken open at the back end of the second quarter. The Cats pounced on a number of unforced errors in the last 10 minutes of the half, kicking four goals and establishing a 51-point margin from which the Eagles would never recover. Those skill execution errors will be an area of focus during the pre-season as the club continues its rebuild.
2. Veteran defender Shannon Hurn further enhanced his credentials to continue into an 18th season with another outstanding performance. He was again his team’s highest possession winner with 32 disposals and took 10 marks as he did his best to hold the dam wall. In conjunction with Liam Duggan and Tom Barrass, who had an exceptional second half of the season, they held up reasonably well given the avalanche of football flooding into their defensive half.
3. As the Eagles continue to work on creating a new game plan, a more contested style, the coaching staff would have again been impressed with the inside work of Jai Culley. The mid-season rookie draftee had only 12 possessions, but he clamped on a team-high 10 tackles. With an AFL pre-season under his belt and with further development he looms as an exciting prospect as he works on the capacity to win his balance of footy on the outside.
4. Developing ruckman Bailey Williams and defender Rhett Bazzo were also shining lights in a disappointing performance. Williams played the best game of his short AFL career after stepping into the senior ruck position in the absence of Nic Naitanui. He had 25 disposals, 17 of them contested and took five marks in an encouraging effort. Bazzo in just his eighth game had 15 disposals and took nine marks, three of them intercepts, to further underline his bright future.
5. Combative medium-sized forward Jamie Cripps would obviously have wanted a better team outcome in his 200th game for the Eagles, but he certainly lived up to his part of the bargain. In trademark fashion he worked up and down the ground pushing himself to the point of exhaustion. He accumulated 13 possessions, took six marks – three inside the forward 50 metre arc – and also laid six tackles to go with three goals. The first of those, a set shot from deep on the members wing at GMHBA Stadium in the opening term, was his 250th for the club.
