West Coast cruised to victory against a struggling Suns side, holding Gold Coast to just two goals in the first half en route to a percentage-boosting win. The margin looked headed for triple figures in the third term before three late Suns goals to end the quarter restored a modicum of respectability to the scoreboard. Luke Shuey recorded 26 possessions and a goal and Brad Sheppard had 21 touches and 12 marks in defence.
Summary[]
| 1/4 time | 1/2 time | 3/4 time | Final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Coast | 5.6.36 | 9.8.62 | 14.9.93 | 20.12.132 | ||||
| Gold Coast | 2.4.16 | 2.7.19 | 5.13.43 | 7.13.55 |
Goals: Kennedy 5, Darling, LeCras 3, Cripps, Lycett 2, Hill, Hurn, Hutchings, Naitanui, Shuey
Best: Shuey, Lycett, Priddis, Kennedy, Sheppard, Hurn, Naitanui
Injuries: Cripps (throat)
Milestones: Cole AFL debut
Named sides[]
| West Coast | Gold Coast | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B: | 28.Cole | 16.MacKenzie | 31.Schofield | B: | 31.Brooksby | 17.May | 23.Lemmens |
| HB: | 12.Wellingham | 20.McGovern | 25.Hurn | HB: | 5.Harbrow | 20.Schade | 28.Kolodjashnij |
| C: | 7.Masten | 11.Priddis | 34.Hutchings | C: | 7.Malceski | 35.Rischitelli | 26.Shaw |
| HF: | 15.Cripps | 27.Darling | 2.LeCras | HF: | 8.Russell | 19.Lynch | 4.Martin |
| F: | 33.Hill | 17.Kennedy | 29.Lycett | F: | 32.Matera | 30.Wright | 39.Davis |
| R: | 9.Naitanui | 8.Redden | 13.Shuey | R: | 22.Nicholls | 9.Ablett | 10.Prestia |
| I: | 5.Sheppard | 14.Duggan | 23.Jetta | I: | 27.Cameron | 33.Hall | 37.Lonergan |
| 26.Butler | 48.Tape | ||||||
| E: | 18.Ellis | 35.McGinnity | 37.Barrass | E: | 34.Willis | 36.Schoenfeld | 38.Joyce |
In: Cole, Jetta
Out: Gaff (concussion), Yeo (quad)
Late change: (GC) Willis for Kolodjashnij (ill)
New: Tom Cole (Bendigo Pioneers)
Quarter by quarter[]
West Coast went in unchanged, while the Suns brought in Mackenzie Willis to replace an ill Kade Kolodjashnij. The match began under cloudy skies.
Club Champion votes[]
| Kennedy | 11 | Hill | 5 | ||
| Shuey | 11 | LeCras | 5 | ||
| Cripps | 8 | McGovern | 5 | ||
| Sheppard | 8 | Darling | 4 | ||
| Hurn | 7 | Jetta | 4 | ||
| Lycett | 7 | MacKenzie | 4 | ||
| Naitanui | 7 | Masten | 4 | ||
| Redden | 7 | Wellingham | 3 | ||
| Butler | 6 | Hutchings | 2 | ||
| Priddis | 6 | Schofield | 2 | ||
| Duggan | 5 | Cole | 1 |
From the coach[]
"I’m happy with the win. It probably looked like a bit of a grind. We’re probably taking for granted some of the scorelines we’re having at home. Teams turn up to win when they come here, so to start like we did and to maintain, for the most part, reasonable effort, and I don’t think we’ve got any injuries either. We’ll move on pretty quick though. We did what we needed to do.
"...We wanted to display the right intent today. Gold Coast has got some serious players in their side. They would have had four or five players this week that you would almost consider as A-graders. To say they’ve got some injuries, that’s true, but there’s some serious talent in their side. We didn’t buy into the back page of the paper today, that’s for sure.
"...If we tried to encourage perfect play we’re not going to win many games. I’m more encouraged by the goals that are dirty, a surge from a stoppage and a crumb or a contest that we win. The clean footy and the stuff that looks good, that’s great and, don’t get me wrong, I like that and I’m sure our supporters do, but they are hard to do all the time. So it’s the dirty footy and the way we defend I’m probably more pleased with. When I get frustrated it’s probably more about what we do off the ball and how we are defending more than about the ball movement."
From the papers[]
The West Australian[]
"The Eagles were caught dozing early, enabling the Suns to attack and May to drift past Tom Nicholls, take a handball and slot a 55m goal. From that point, West Coast attacked in waves.
Darling kicked the first and fourth goals, Kennedy booted the two in between.
Gold Coast had precisely two opportunities to score among the avalanche and Luke Russell butchered both of them. He played on, then panicked and missed from the goal square before he was again astray on the run from 40m.
Sides always talk about the importance of taking oppor-tunities when they present in interstate fixtures. Russell, as an experienced player in a Suns line-up missing a swag of personnel, simply needed to do better.
It took an after-the-siren goal from Ryan Davis following a good tackle on Brad Sheppard to drag the margin back to 20 points at the first change."[1]
The Age[]
"A run of nine unanswered goals for the Eagles from the start of the second term to late in the third set up the convincing 20.12 to 7.13 victory.
It also gave them three consecutive wins for the first time this season – including last week's maiden away win, against Port Adelaide.
The workload was shared, with midfielders Luke Shuey, Matt Priddis and Jack Redden enjoying solid work from their ruckmen Nic Naitanui and Scott Lycett.
It was a tough return for Suns defender Steven May, playing his first game since being rubbed out for striking Brisbane's Stefan Martin in round four. It was almost a sixth week of punishment, being made to man-up on a red-hot Josh Kennedy on a day when the Eagles had 60 entries into their attacking 50m area."[2]
Gold Coast Bulletin[]
"Their dominance in the forward line came off the back of the clean ball delivered by the Luke Shuey, Matt Priddis and Jack Redden.
Gold Coast provided some fight in patches but were made to pay for missing their chances.
The basic skill errors and poor decision making that has become habit with the Suns were back on show as they added woeful goal kicking to their list of things to work on.
They struggled to transition out of a backline missing Kade Kolodjashnij, who was hospitalised on Friday night due to a stomach illness, and when they failed to score they couldn’t cope with the speed at which West Coast rebounded."[3]
East Perth report[]
Round 11 (28 May)
East Perth were demolished by Leederville co-tenants Subiaco, the Lions running away with the match to win by 99 points. Kane Lucas led the Royals with 29 possessions and Jonathan Giles had 29 hitouts and 16 disposals, but was wasteful in front of goal.
Appearing for East Perth: Adamson, Allen, Barrass, Bennell, Brophy, Brown, Colledge, Ellis, Giles, Lamb, Lucas, McInnes, Partington, Snadden. Reserves: Karpany, Mutimer, Tunbridge.
Injury list[]
In the leadup to the match the following players were listed as injured or unavailable:
| Player | Injury | Expected duration | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheed | Knee/pectoral | TBC | ||||
| Nelson | Elbow | 1-2 weeks | ||||
| Gaff | Concussion | Test | ||||
| Brown | Finger | Available | (Placed on LTI list 24/3/16, replaced by Colledge) | |||
| Waterman* | Glandular fever | Indefinite |
References[]
http://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2016/10/wce-v-gcfc
http://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/news/2016-05-29/full-qa-transcript-adam-simpson
- ↑ Mark Duffield, The West Australian (30 May 2016), "Hungry Eagles feast on Suns": https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/31719009/hungry-eagles-feast-on-suns/
- ↑ Brad Elborough, The Age (29 May 2016), "Win, but no giant leap for Eagles": http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-match-report/afl-2016-west-coast-eagles-thump-depleted-gold-coast-suns-20160529-gp6qna.html
- ↑ Tom Boswell, Gold Coast Bulletin (29 May 2016), "Eagles cruise in second gear over Suns": http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/west-coast/west-coast-eagles-cruise-over-gold-coast-suns-by-77-points-in-round-10-but-it-was-no-historic-thumping/news-story/b261b45a697c4705d48c52b398ef4fb8
| 2016 season <--2015-16 offseason | Playing squad | Coaching panel | 2016-17 offseason--> |
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NAB Challenge : 1 (ADL) | 2 (GC) | 3 (ESS) |