West Coast Eagles hold on for five point win to register second win of season

West Coast coach Adam Simpson last week plonked undersized and under-experienced Brady Hough on Carlton big gun Charlie Curnow and got torched.

This week, again faced with an undersized defence minus Jeremy McGovern and Tom Barrass against a gun tall forward Nick Larkey, he sent his oldest and most experienced player Shannon Hurn to him and was rewarded with a win and a superb performance from his veteran.

The gripping five point victory ended a 16 game losing streak for the Eagles. Hurn kept Larkey to two last quarter goals, buffeting him under the football as often as possible.

And it eased the pressure valve at the club. West Coast’s second win of the season means there will be no sackings this week – or alleged emergency board meetings which turn out to be corporate lunches.

The experienced and often maligned Jack Darling played his best quarter of football for the season in the first term to help establish a gap that North Melbourne, also on a 16 game losing run, were never quite able to run down.

Tim Kelly had 26 disposals to be important. Andrew Gaff had 25 and more metres gained than he has managed for much of the year. And there were good signs from younger players too.

Elijah Hewett’s 21 disposals included a brilliant goal. Bailey Williams took a hiding from Todd Goldstein in hit outs but gathered 23 disposals around the ground and took five important marks.

Even that section of the Eagles fan base who love to hate Darling would have had to have taken their hats off to him in the first term. He had 10 disposals. Jack was back…..and forward and through the midfield as well. He gained 214 metres for the term and was the dominant player on the field as the Eagles built an early 19-point lead to quarter time.

Larkey got one good look at goal in the opening term but it wasn’t opposed to Hurn, it was opposed to Rhett Bazzo when Hurn had headed to the bench for a spell. Larkey, usually deadly accurate around goal, missed from 25 metres straight in front. The Eagles had owned the ball with 120 disposals to 74 and they had owned territory as well with 17 inside fifties to seven before quarter time.

The issue for West Coast was expected to be their backline. But instead it became the springboard for attacks off turnover. They kicked the first two goals of the second term as well and five of their six goals had come from transition from the back half.

But the nature of the game changed early in the second term and the scoreboard changed dramatically. The turnover game became a stoppage game. And North Melbourne who went to half time with a 31-11 edge in hit outs and a 32-13 edge in stoppage wins, cashed in.

They kicked five goals in a row to wipe out West Coast’s lead. All but one came from stoppage wins and all but one were kicked by forward Paul Curtis who went to half time with four goals kicked in the second quarter. Remarkably he should have had five, somehow missing from inside the goal square.

The nature of the first half made for a gloriously uncertain second half in a gripping battle of the cellar dwellers. On the one hand, it was hard to imagine a team being able to manufacture a win in the modern game shifting the ball from its back half off opposition turnovers.

But on the other hand it was equally hard to imagine West Coast being smashed at clearances for a full game like they had been to half time.

They might get smashed at clearance by Carlton as they had been last week. But North Melbourne?

Surely not.

It was West Coast that solved its problem first. They pushed an extra number to around the ground stoppages throughout the quarter and were not only able to cancel out North Melbourne’s edge, they were able to create an edge of their own.

They won clearances for the quarter 14-6 and even managed a couple of goals from them, with Darling receiving a free kick after being shunted out of a ruck contest by Goldstein, while Hewett swept through a forward fifty boundary throw up for a brilliant goal.

It meant a three goal to nothing quarter and, thanks to keeping the Kangaroos scoreless, a five goal lead.

Hurn played Larkey from behind and pushed him under marking contests to cancel out the height difference. When Larkey pushed to the wing to try and give the Roos an outlet from their back half Bailey Williams manned him up.

And the Roos needed an outlet. The Eagles had been clear winners in the territory battle 50-33 in inside fifties by the last change.

The Eagles didn’t run out of method in the last term, but they did run out of puff. Their 31-point lead was whittled down goal by goal as the Roos threw everything forward in a bid to pinch the game. The Eagles were anxious to say the least.

The Roos kicked the first four goals of the quarter. Suddenly 31 points was seven points. Harry Sheezel thought he had made it one but the goal umpire said his snap had missed. Paul Curtins shot to make it even but missed wide right. The Eagles milked the clock to get the win.