It was labour intensive, it was ugly….and it was precious.
The West Coast Eagles were well short of their best, but they left Metricon Stadium with four precious premiership points, after a grinding 15-point victory against North Melbourne tonight.
After scores were level at three-quarter time, the Eagles produced their best patch of football in the first 10 minutes of the last term.
On another night when the Eagles lost a star early, key forward Josh Kennedy went down with an ankle injury late in the second quarter.
The Eagles will now bid adieu to the Gold Coast hub MkII and head back to Perth in the morning sitting in third position on the ladder, with the round to be completed on Monday. They depart satisfied and content with their position as they prepare to launch into a finals campaign.
The Eagles were lackadaisical in the first quarter when they conceded the advantage in almost every key performance indicator.
North Melbourne had 39 more possessions, led the inside 50 metre count 19-9 and the Eagles worked at just 11 percent efficiency in the front half term. The result was a scoreless quarter while North, who completely outworked them, kicked 2.4. The 16 points margin could have been far greater, but for inaccuracy.
Jed Anderson and Shaun Higgins had 10 possessions each for the quarter and helped create the ascendancy with Todd Goldstein.
Aside from Andrew Gaff, who had eight touches and Dom Sheed who had six, the Eagles midfield struggled to get into the game.
Some magic from Jack Darling, dribbling the ball through from the pocket, finally got the Eagles’ first major of the night, eight minutes into the second term. Liam Ryan and Gaff were among those trying to lift their team.
Jackson Nelson was working hard across half-back while Liam Duggan was impacting through the middle and Tim Kelly started to exert an influence.
A great squaring ball from Ryan also led to the Eagles’ second when he hit Brayden Ainsworth up at the top of the square.
Ryan then kicked one of his own to put the Eagles in front for the first time, 17 minutes into the tern. He used his renowned evasive skills and dancing feet to open up the angle and slot through a dart, to take the Eagles to 3.1 (19) to 2.6 (18).
Oscar Allen got the ball rolling in the third with a great chase down tackle and he slotted the goal from the resultant free kick.
The quarter meandered along with both teams missing opportunities and scores were level at the last change.
It was crying out for someone to produce a little magic to break the game open. And it was Oscar Allen who did it with consecutive goals in the last term.
Details
West Coast Eagles 0.0 3.1 4.4 7.7 (49)
North Melbourne 2.4 2.6 3.10 4.10 (34)
Goals
West Coast Eagles: Allen 3, Ryan 2, Darling, Ainsworth.
North Melbourne: Higgins, Larkey, Zurhaar, Anderson.
Best
West Coast Eagles: Duggan, Ryan, Hurn, Gaff, Sheed, Allen.
North Melbourne: Higgins, Simpkin, Polec, Davies-Uniacke, Anderson, Dumont.
Injuries
West Coast Eagles: Josh Kennedy (ankle)
