The West Coast Eagles have become the first team in the AFL this season to conquer the special new Covid ‘rule’ which stipulates ‘first to 10 goals wins.’

It’s not an actual rule, of course, but in a campaign the likes of which the competition has never seen before the 10-goal mark had become a faultless indicator. Until the Eagles played and beat Geelong on Saturday.

It was the 78^th game of the shortened 2020 season, and in the first 77 games the first team to kick 10 goals had won.

The disbelievers will point out that in 23 of the first 77 games neither side kicked 10 goals, and that only nine times had both sides kicked 10 goals.

But still the statistics had been irrefutable. The first side to kick 10 goals wins.

So, when Sam Simpson goaled for Geelong five minutes into the final quarter last Saturday night to put Geelong ahead 10.2 to West Coast 8.6 it was going to take something special to get the home side across the line.

Just as worrying to Eagles fans might have been the fact that in the first 77 games this year only once had a side won after trailing at three-quarter time. That was when North Melbourne came from four points down against St Kilda at the last change to win by two points. And it was in round one.

But clearly Josh Kennedy was unperturbed by a left field Covid quirk or a more customary football fact that has become more pronounced this season.

He delivered exactly the special something Eagles fans were looking forward when he put paid to both to jump to the top of the League goal-kicking list and grab his own Covid-specific statistical endorsement.

Having already kicked the first goal of the final quarter before Simpson replied for Geelong, Kennedy kicked the next goal and, after Jack Darling added one for the Eagles, he kicked the last to guarantee the nine-point win.

With hauls of 4-7-4 goals in the last three outings Kennedy now has 22 goals to lead the Coleman Medal race at round nine from Sydney’s Tom Papley (20), Brisbane’s Charlie Cameron (19), Port Adelaide’s Charlie Dixon (17) and Richmond’s Dan Butler (17).

Also, with another four-goal bag in round four, Kennedy has kicked four or more goals in a game twice as often this season as any other player in the League. Papley, Cameron and GWS’ Toby Greene are the only others to have kicked four goals more than once.

Kennedy, too, has moved five places up the all-time AFL goal-kicking list, and is within striking distance of the top 25.

Having begun the 2020 season 31st on the all-time list with 618 goals, he has gone past Brendan Fevola (623), Michael Moncrieff (629), David Neitz (631) and Alastair Lynch (633).

Less than 24 hours after West Coast had become the second team to win after trailing at three-quarter time Fremantle did likewise when they over-ran Collingwood.

But still the 'first to 10 goals wins' rule prevailed when Fremantle posted their 10^th goal via David Mundy after the final siren.

In other left-field statistics to round nine this season:-

• Andrew Gaff is the only midfielder to have played 100% game time in a match this season. And he’s done it twice – against Geelong on Saturday and Fremantle in round seven. Jack Darling (four) and Brad Sheppard (two) are the only other Eagles to complete a game this season without a spell on the bench. Only Brisbane’s Harris Andrews (six), Gold Coast’s Sam Collins (five) and North Melbourne’s Ben Brown (five) have logged more full games than Darling, who played every minute of Rounds 1-3-4-5. Sheppard did likewise in Rounds 4-6.
• Gaff, fifth in the League for possessions, has topped the Eagles possession count five times. Only Brisbane’s Lachie Neale (nine) and Western Bulldogs’ Jack Macrae (six) have done so more often. Neale and Macrae sit first and second on the League possession list.
• Kennedy has been the Eagles leading goal-kicker four times (including ties and excluding games without a multiple goal-kicker). Only Papley (six), Hawkins (five), Butler (five) and Charlie Cameron (five) have topped their club goal sheet more often.
• Despite their slow start to the season West Coast have had only one goalless quarter – the fourth quarter against Gold Coast in round two. This is the lowest number of goalless quarters across the League. Richmond and Fremantle have most with six.