Round 4 2008

Sydney v West Coast
Round 4, 2008

Doctors attend to Staker. Photo: aflphotos.com.au

Date

Sat, 12 April 2008 (7:10 PM EST)

Venue

Stadium Australia

Attendance

44,235

Result

Lost by 62

Score

SYD 16.11.107 - 5.15.45 WCE

Brownlow

3 T.Kennelly (SYD)
2 A.Goodes (SYD)
1 J.McVeigh (SYD)

Ladder

14th

<--Prev

Next-->

Sydney handed West Coast their third straight loss, holding the depleted Eagles to just five goals for the match and increasing their lead at every change en route to a 62 point thumping. On a night where West Coast had precious few winners, Ben McKinley kicked four of his side's five goals and Matt Rosa acquitted himself well in the midfield. The match will be chiefly remembered, however, for the massive left hook Barry Hall delivered to the jaw of an unsuspecting Brent Staker, leaving the utility stunned and resulting in a 7-week suspension for Hall that was probably on the lenient side.

Result

		1/4 time		1/2 time		3/4 time		Final
Sydney		4.2.26		8.6.54		12.8.80		16.11.107
West Coast		1.2.8		2.3.15		4.5.29		5.15.45

Goals: McKinley 4, Armstrong

Best: Rosa, McKinley

Injuries: Staker (jaw, concussion)

Milestones: Spangher AFL debut

Named sides

	West Coast				Sydney
B:	41.Staker	39.Hunter	25.Hurn	B:	29.Mattner	21.Barry	17.Kennelly
HB:	38.B.Jones	23.Glass	37.A.Selwood	HB:	15.Jack	25.Richards	6.C.Bolton
C:	32.Embley	4.Kerr	10.Braun	C:	32.Buchanan	31.Kirk	3.McVeigh
HF:	35.Armstrong	29.Hansen	12.McNamara	HF:	24.J.Bolton	19.O'Loughlin	5.R.O'Keefe
F:	27.McKinley	21.Lynch	14.Seaby	F:	39.Grundy	1.Hall	20.Ablett
R:	20.Cox	5.Stenglein	8.Waters	R:	16.Jolly	37.Goodes	33.Moore
I:	24.Rosa	28.S.Selwood	30.WSpangher	I:	11.Barlow	42.Bevan	14.Bird
	13.Masten				30.Roberts-Thomson
E:	18.Ebert	17.Kennedy	6.Nicoski	E:	7.Brennan	4.Mathews	40.Smith

In: Rosa, Masten, Armstrong, McNamara, Spangher

Out: Wirrpanda (hamstring), Priddis (knee), Fletcher, Ebert, Nicoski

Late change: (WCE) Nicoski for Embley (illness); (SYD) Brennan for Grundy (foot)

New: Matt Spangher (Eastern Ranges/Kew Rovers JFC)

From the coach

"I would say, probably, I was a bit disappointed at half-time just with some of the areas we got beaten. We fought back very strongly, all the players, but I was very pleased with our young players who took it up to Sydney in that second half.

"(The Hall incident) just impacts the game. Obviously when you lose a player in the first quarter it has a big impact on what you can do and how you can use players. We just had to deal with that. Everyone can make their own opinion of it, I can't comment on it. I always feel for any player who gets an injury, you don't like to see anyone get injured in the game. It makes you feel for them, but it's a pretty tough game so you have to learn to be resilient. He was trying to get himself up and going, but the doctors weren't really comfortable with him going back on. It was a massive risk if we had have decided to put him back on in a game that we weren't going to win."

From the papers

The West Australian

"After these two proud clubs had traded such telling blows - and ones of infinitely more integrity than Hall's - in the past seven season, Sydney deserved high praise for their 62-point victory.

Defenders Tadhg Kennelly, Leo Barry, Craig Bolton and Ted Richards were sensational, Brett Kirk as always the ultimate leader and Ryan O'Keefe a conveyance of class.

For the Eagles, it was sometimes disturbing to see ruckman Dean Cox ignoring his sore right foot to kick with his left and although he finished the game bootless on the bench and noticeably limping from the ground, he was far from his team's worst.

Matt Rosa made an impressive return, Brett Jones and Shannon Hurn tried hard and Glass seemed to have thrown off the effects of a sore knee against the brooding Hall."

The Sunday Age

"The Eagles had some excuses. Not only were they coming off consecutive losses, they were depleted, without injured midfielder Matt Priddis, David Wirrpanda and they'd dropped the out-of-form Brad Ebert and premiership midfielder Chad Fletcher. Mark Nicoski had also been cut, but had to be recalled when valuable wingman Andrew Embley joined the list of sidelined players, succumbing to illness.

All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox was included, despite injuring his foot last round and there was a cloud over captain Darren Glass, but he took his place.

Just five points had separated these two sides in four of their past five games and the Eagles had won the past three. McKinley kicked four of the Eagles' five goals in a good showing.

But nothing could stop the Swans from cleaning up last night. They are running hot and celebrated Goodes' club record 195 consecutive games in style."

WAFL

Round 4 (12 April)

Subiaco (Fletcher) vs Swan Districts (Notte, Davis)

South Fremantle (Wilson) vs West Perth

Peel (Schofield) vs East Fremantle (Kennedy, Houlihan, Arrowsmith)

Claremont (MacKenzie, C.Jones, Thomson, Wilkes, McGinnity) vs East Perth

Bye: Perth

Injury list

In the lead-up to the round the following players were listed as injured:

Player		Injury		Expected duration
Brown		Knee		Season
Priddis		Knee		3 weeks
LeCras		Groin		2-3 weeks
Butler		Osteitis pubis		1-2 weeks
Cox		Foot		Test
Glass		Knee		Test

References

http://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/2008/161820080412.html