West Coast have failed of their bid to ship retiring greats Luke Shuey, Shannon Hurn and Nic Naitanui out on a successful observe, and a closing time period fade out has additionally maintained strain on coach Adam Simpson to maintain his job as West Coast received the AFL’s wood spoon.
The Eagles misplaced to Adelaide 17.21 (123) to 12.6 (78) and conceded the final eight targets of the night time.
North Melbourne’s upset win over Gold Coast earlier within the day despatched the Eagles again to the underside of the ladder and whereas they led by 11 factors at half-time, they couldn’t maintain off a second half cost from the guests.
It is West Coast’s second wood spoon and it was additionally the fifth time since they entered the AFL in 1987 that the underside spot within the ladder has modified within the final spherical.
Eagles followers got here to farewell Shuey, Hurn and Naitanui after their superb careers. The ruckman couldn’t play attributable to damage however each Shuey and Hurn obtained large ovations each time they’d the ball..
Shuey introduced the home down after kicking a superb left foot objective within the first quarter to present himself the dream begin to his final recreation. Simpson punched the sky with pleasure at seeing his captain kick the objective. The crowd confirmed their approval for Simpson each time he appeared on the large display too.
The Crows had been wildly astray with 5.10 within the first half and one other 5 pictures that didn’t even rating. West Coast had been considerably extra environment friendly regardless of having 10 fewer inside 50s at half-time.
West Coast’s whiteboard had “Honour through action” written on it and the Eagles performed determined footy for a lot of the night time. That was summed up by Andrew Gaff’s superior chase down deal with on Josh Rachele.
The Crow took possession with no opponent in sight, had two bounces and couldn’t imagine it when Gaff ran him down.
West Coast hunted the Crows. The membership’s first objective of the sport got here after Jack Petruccelle compelled a turnover with a determined deal with.
The Crows finals hopes had been over however Taylor Walker nonetheless had the possibility to win the Coleman Medal. He wanted a bag given he was eight targets behind Charlie Curnow and the Blues don’t play till the final recreation of the spherical.
Walker had solely two targets within the first half however charged to the road in addition 9 majors and take the Coleman Medal lead because the Crows managed the second half and ran away with a 45-point win.
Shuey completed the sport with 25 possessions, 4 clearances and one objective. Hurn had 22 possessions and 506 metres gained in defence.
All eyes will now flip to Simpson’s future and whether or not he’s accomplished sufficient to persuade the board to let him proceed.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
