A brilliant third-quarter surge propelled West Coast to a hard fought 22-point win over Carlton at Optus Stadium on Sunday.
The Eagles kicked five-straight goals in the space of 15 minutes to break Carlton’s resolve and storm to an 11.6 (72) to 7.8 (50) win in front of its loyal blue and gold army.
West Coast appeared to be on the ropes when Carlton livewire Zac Fisher kicked his fourth goal to extend the Blues’ lead to 19 points just 20 seconds after the resumption of play in the second half, but a strong grab and straight kick by Josh Kennedy at the five minute mark of the penultimate term sparked the Eagles into action.
Kennedy, who was locked in a fierce battle with all-Australian contender Jacob Weitering for most of the day, booted his second major of the day shortly after, kicking truly from 35 metres out after getting on the end of some brilliant contested play and ball use from Jake Waterman.
Jamie Cripps got in on the action minutes later, kicking an easy set shot after winning a holding the ball free kick for capturing a napping Sam Petrevski Seaton, before Darling gobbled up a perfect inside 50 from Tim Kelly and nailed his set shot from 20 metres out directly in front.
The last of West Coast’s five unanswered goals came in a more comical fashion.
After pouncing on a loose ball and finding himself in space, Oscar Allen charged towards the goals and attempted to slot his first six pointer of the day.
But the versatile tall was grabbed milliseconds before dropping the ball onto his boot.
Fortunately he still managed to make some contact with the ball and it almost fortuitously fell into the hands of Jarrod Cameron, who streamed into the goal square and sent the Sherrin into Optus Stadium’s second tier.
In spite of seeing their 19-point advantage turn into an 11-point deficit in the matter of minutes, Carlton shot out of the blocks in the fourth term and Will Setterfield got the visitors back to within five points of West Coast with an audacious snap less than a minute after the restart.
However, the Eagles managed to slow the Blues’ early momentum by controlling the ball for lengthy periods of time before launching another assault at the halfway point of the final term.
Dom Sheed got reward for a hard days work by slotting a brilliant running goal from near the boundary to bumps West Coast’s lead back out to 11 points.
And three minutes later he doubled his take, pumping a 45 metre snap through the big sticks to all but seal the match.
Jake Waterman, who had another solid day at the office, made sure of the result by taking a strong contested clunk and slotting his first major of the day with a little less than seven minutes remaining on the clock.
Nic Naitanui bolstered his case for a second all-Australian blazer with an emphatic performance at the centre bounce and stoppages.
He was particularly sublime in the first half, winning 22 hitouts, nine of which were tapped to the Eagles’advantage.
Sheed (26 disposals), Kelly (22 disposals), Elliot Yeo (21 disposals), Andrew Gaff (20 disposals), Jack Redden (17 disposals) and skipper Luke Shuey (17 disposals) were all beneficiaries of Naitanui’s handy work in the big-man battle.
His silver service allowed the midfield cohort to get quality entries into the forward half, which the Eagles in the attacking 50 dined out on.
Liam Duggan (16 disposals) was particularly strong down back and ably assisted by Shannon Hurn (14 disposals), Brad Sheppard (13 disposals), Tom Cole (13 disposals) and Josh Rotham (12 disposals).
WEST COAST EAGLES 2.2 3.3 8.4 11.6 (72)
CARLTON 2.0 5.4 6.5 7.8 (50)
Goals
West Coast Eagles – Kennedy, Darling, Sheed 2; Gaff, Sheppard, Cripps, Cameron, Waterman
Carlton – Fisher 4; Walsh, Gibbons
