Key forward Jack Darling produced one of the great quarters in West Coast Eagles history to steer his team out of trouble and on the way to a 30-point victory against Adelaide at Optus Stadium today.
After a quiet opening term, Darling exploded to life and kicked five goals in the second quarter to help wrest control away from the gallant Crows who led by seven points at the 10-minute mark of the stanza.
Darling kicked three goals in as many minutes after a brace of strong marks in the forward line, opposed to Crows defender Tom Doedee.
That brought about a change in the Crows coaching box, with Jake Kelly swung onto the Eagles game-breaker, but he kicked two more for the quarter in bizarre circumstances.
The first of them came from a lateral pass from Jake Waterman when he marked in space, decided against settling and taking a deliberate shot – instead he dribbled the ball between the legs of a forlorn Brodie Smith.
His final major for the quarter when Josh Kennedy delivered a perfectly weighted pass to Darling, about 40 metres from goal. It slipped through his red-hot hands, but Darling recovered and still nailed the goal as he stumbled backwards.
That gave the Eagles a 29-point advantage at the main break, which seemed unlikely 20 minutes earlier when the Crows pressure was intense the Eagles were struggling fort midfield ascendancy.
While Darling was the hero of the half, he had good support from Oscar Allen and Kennedy, who kicked two goals apiece, meaning all of the Eagles nine goals in the opening half, came from the tall forwards.
While they finished off the work, Nic Naitanui was influential around the contests and players like Jack Redden, Tim Kelly, Dom Sheed and Andrew Gaff imposed themselves on the game.
Defensively Tom Cole was exceptional in conjunction with Alex Witherden while acting skipper Jeremy McGovern marshalled the troops and helped to repel many of Adelaide’s probing runs forward.
The Crows came again, edging within 17 points in the third quarter before the Eagles again responded to move out to a 35-point advantage by three-quarter time.
With Naitanui continuing to wield a strong influence in the ruck, playing a leading hand in the team’s clearance work out of the middle, Kelly, Sheed and Co consistently pumped the ball forward.
The energy of Jamie Cripps and Jake Waterman was pivotal in this period as the Eagles kept Adelaide at arm’s length.
Details
West Coast Eagles: 2.5 9.6 14.7 16.10 106
Adelaide Crows: 2.3 4.7 8.8 11.10 76
Goals
West Coast Eagles: Darling 5; Kennedy , Allen 3; Waterman 2; Petruccelle, Cripps, Jones
Adelaide Crows: McAdam 3; Thilthorpe, Berry 2; Rowe, Schoenberg, Fogarty.
Best
West Coast Eagles: Darling, McGovern, Naitanui, Kelly, Gaff, Cole, Sheed.
Adelaide Laird, Fogarty, Keays, Thilthorpe.
Injuries: Nil
Atterndance: 43,427
