1. The difference between ecstasy and pain can be a fine line and there was certainly no questioning the endeavour of the West Coast players. As a collective they battled hard all night, as evidenced by the fact that they won the contested possession count 150-143, but lost the efficiency measure 70% to 73% and that was the critical factor. After an enthralling two-hour battle, a handful of execution errors were probably the determining factor.
2. It would be nice if West Coast could get through the first quarter of a game without having to activate the sub. Three times in the first five rounds, the club has been forced to introduce the sub in the opening term and against Port it came in the first few minutes. Impressive recruit Xavier Ellis succumbed to a calf strain and being a player down against arguably the hardest-running team in the AFL proved decisive in the last term.
3. If there was any doubting the importance of Luke Shuey, Chris Masten and Matt Rosa to the team’s structure and balance then it was erased against Port. All three men were absent against Geelong, but had close to 90 possessions between them and were prime ball movers. Shuey had former Port captain Dom Cassisi as a shadow, but worked through that situation and had 28 possessions, 13 of them contested.
4. The growing stature of Eric Mackenzie as a quality defender was again to the fore when he opposed in-form Port full-forward Jay Schulz. Mackenzie was the master of the majority of the one-on-one battles and held Schulz to just two goals, one of them coming after a mark that looked doubtful. Mackenzie also had 21 disposals, as opposed to Schulz who had 15.
5. Another key defender getting the job done is Mitch Brown. After being selected in round one and cementing a place in the line-up he has done some big jobs for the team in the first five weeks. Last night he was pitted against Justin Westhoff and did a terrific defensive job on one of Port’s most important players. Westhoff still got a decent share of the ball, but many of those possessions came when he was playing on ball.
