Eagles Master Wind And Pies

The Sunday Age

Sunday February 24, 2008

Digby Beacham, Albany

IN ONE of Western Australia's most popular summer tourist destinations, there was a distinct football feel about NAB Regional Challenge game involving West Coast and Collingwood here yesterday.

Not only were two of the game's biggest clubs on hand to strut their stuff, albeit with vastly under-strength sides, but the weather was such that Collingwood players could have been excused for thinking they were at the MCG in the middle of May.

A crisp south-easterly wind whipped across the ground during the match, strengthening as the game progressed, ensuring jumpers and scarves, not shirts and sunscreen, were the order of the day for the sellout crowd of 8027.

The elements were such that the standard of football was best described as modest, with players from both sides struggling to adapt to the blustery conditions on a spacious ground foreign to just about everyone.

Only seven goals were kicked into the breeze, five coming in the final quarter when the sting had gone from the contest.

It was West Coast's ability to start taking its chances while kicking with the wind in the third term that turned the game on its head, the Eagles scoring 6.4 to 0.4 to turn a four-point half-time deficit into a 33-point win.

By game's end, the Eagles had held firm to record a 14.15 (99) to 9.12 (66) victory despite missing the quality of Tyson Stenglein, Daniel Kerr, Matt Priddis, Darren Glass, Quinten Lynch, Adam Selwood, Adam Hunter, Josh Kennedy and Mark Nicoski. Not surprisingly, it was the class of triple All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox and experienced midfielders Andrew Embley, Chad Fletcher and Michael Braun who were influential in the dominant third quarter.

Collingwood left behind experienced campaigners Scott Burns, Josh Fraser, Alan Didak, Brodie Holland, Tarkyn Lockyer and Leon Davis, along with young guns Dale Thomas, Scott Pendlebury and Tyson Goldsack and lost Brad Dick to a knee injury before half-time.

The forward twisted his left knee in an attempt to lay a tackle on Embley late in the second quarter and, in obvious discomfort, was carried from the ground by two trainers. Dick reappeared from the Collingwood changerooms after half-time on crutches and with an icepack on the injured knee. He will have scans today but the early prognosis points to a year on the sidelines.

The Magpies, coached by Guy McKenna, experimented heavily with their line-up, with one move - using Paul Medhurst through the midfield - showing promise, despite his occasional wayward use of the ball. Ben Reid marked strongly and kicked 3.3 as an excellent foil for Anthony Rocca, who was a continual target at centre-half-forward.

In an indication the Magpies' following division could be better than last season, former Brisbane Lions ruckman Cameron Wood produced a solid performance.

Wood, brought in after the club delisted Guy Richards, was efficient at the centre bounces and at stoppages around the ground and showed a level of mobility that ruckmen need in the modern game, with the 20-year-old kicking two final-term goals to underline his athleticism.

DETAILS

WEST COAST

2.6 3.8 9.12 14.15 (99)

COLLINGWOOD

1.1 4.6 4.10 9.12 (66)

GOALS

West Coast: Wirrpanda 3, Staker 2, Graham 2, McKinley 2, C Jones, Fletcher, Seaby, Schofield, Armstrong.

Collingwood: Reid 3, Wood 2, Johnson, Rocca, Macaffer, Medhurst.

West Coast: Fletcher, Braun, B Jones, Embley, Cox, Wirrpanda.

Collingwood: Reid, Swan, Medhurst, Maxwell, Johnson, Wood.

INJURIES

Collingwood: Dick (knee), Brown (knee).

UMPIRES

Margetts, Farmer, Hendrie, Keating.

CROWD

About 7500 at Collingwood Park, Albany.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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