One that got away
Warning: This could be painful to Eagles fans. It is one that got away. The very worst one.
It was round five, 2013 against Port Adelaide at Football Park. West Coast led 21-0 late in the first quarter and 70-29 at three-quarter time. And lost.
Not until 11 minutes into the final quarter did Port hit the front via Travis Boak, and after a Brad Dalziell goal for West Coast five minutes later Angus Monfries replied for Port. The home side led by four.
Eleven frantic minutes followed but only three behinds were scored. Monfries and Cam O’Shea for Port and then Mark Le Cras for West Coast with still 2min 52sec to play. But Port hung on.
It was the biggest three-quarter time lead West Coast have given up in club history.
If only to find something positive, Scott Selwood had 28 possessions and 10 tackles to pick up three Brownlow votes in the losing side.
Five goals in a game
If we had a meeting of the current Eagles playing group – by Zoom of course – what would be the consensus if we asked the players the question “who among this group was the youngest and quickest player to kick five goals in a game for the Eagles?” And who do you think?
A clue? There are five possibilities.
Josh Kennedy? Not even close. He was 22+ in his 30th Eagles game before he kicked his first bag of five for the club.
Jack Darling? Wrong again. He was 20 and in his 40th game.
Maybe Jamie Cripps? Strike three. He was 22 in his 35th Eagles game.
A midfielder maybe! Luke Shuey? Strike four. The new skipper was 20 in his 14th game.
The youngest and quickest player among the current Eagles list to kick five goals in a game is Jack Petruccelle. He did so in his eighth game just seven days beyond his 20th birthday.
It was in round five, 2019 in a 42-point loss to Port Adelaide at Optus Stadium. Petruccelle kicked five of the team’s eight goals in what was Mark Hutchings’ 100th game.
Petruccelle, the mop-haired speedster from the Northern Knights, was the 40th and most recent player among 249 all-time Eagles to kick five or more in a game.
Excluding players who started their AFL career elsewhere, Petruccelle was the ninth quickest in terms of games behind Daniel Metropolis and Stevan Jackson (1), Quentin Lynch (2), Phil Matera and Troy Wilson (3), Ben McKinley and Laurie Keene (4) and Mark Le Cras (5).
And he was the ninth youngest behind Ben Cousins (17 years 359 days), Chris Lewis (18/143), Jackson (19/52), Lynch (19/157), Fraser Gehrig (19/169), Chris Judd (19/280), Ashley McIntosh (19/285) and Le Cras (20/3).
