The fine line between pleasure and pain has never been better illustrated than the 2016 campaign for the West Coast Eagles.

The Eagles didn’t do a lot wrong but found themselves bundled out in the first week of the finals series.

Just percentage away from fourth position and a double chance, the Eagles finished in sixth spot after losing only six of 22 matches during the qualifying rounds. It meant they would host a home final, but it would be sudden death.

Their opponents would be the Western Bulldogs, who had completed the home and away series with a 20-point loss to 16^th-placed Fremantle a fortnight earlier at the same venue.

For the first time in history there was a bye between that match and the start of the finals series and it worked to the Bulldogs advantage.

The Bulldogs added five key players who were absent through injury against Fremantle. Captain Easton Wood, Jordan Roughead, Tom Liberatore, Jackson Macrae and Jake Stringer were all recalled for this battle and they all played their role.

On the other side of the ledger, West Coast lost Lewis Jetta to a calf strain at its main training session in the days leading up to the game and there was a doubt around the ability of Scott Lycett to compete as the No.1 ruckman in the absence of Nic Naitanui.

Lycett had battled a posterior cruciate injury at the back end of the year and had re-injured the knee in the early stages of the Eagles’ round 23 match against Adelaide. Again, he gave it a tweak after a brave chase down of Macrae in the first quarter.

As expected, the Bulldogs came out snarling, missed some relatively easy opportunities, but then the Eagles’ forward pressure came to bear. The intensity in the attacking half caused skill errors by the Bulldogs and both Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling converted goals to maximise the pain.

But the Dogs responded, kicked a couple of quick goals and were never again headed on the way to a convincing 47-point win - 14.15 (99) to 7.10 (52).

It was a heart-breaking loss at the Eagles fortress and a bitterly disappointing end to the campaign for a team that had looked to take the final, quantum leap forward from 2015 Grand Finalists to 2016 Premiers.

The Premiers did come from this game, however, as the Bulldogs produced remarkable finals momentum to climb from seventh at the end of the qualifying rounds to win their first flag since 1954.

Unfortunately for the Eagles there was a divide between the top 10 and the rest and despite a strong season they were inside the top four only once during the season – after the opening round – but were for the most part just percentage short of owning a place in the upper portion of the ladder.