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Highlights: Skilled Eagles smother battling Bombers

Expert
30th June, 2016
9

West Coast had a comfortable 78-point win over the Essendon Bombers on Friday night without reaching any great heights in terms of their performance despite the inflated margin.

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The Bombers started well kicking the first two goals of the game and added two more in the first term to lead by three points in the sort of fast start that has been common for them this season.

However like on so many occasions beforehand, they fell away as the game went on, struggling both to create scoring opportunites and to make the most of them as they kicked just three goals and nine behinds in what was left of the match.

The Eagles themselves didn’t look like they were giving 100 per cent effort in the game at any point but their superior skills with the footy allowed them to first chase down Essendon’s early lead and then build a comfortable one of their own.

It wasn’t really until the last quarter where they booted nine goals and three behinds that they really motored away from the Bombers, turning a small buffer into a thumping win.

The brightest spark for the Eagles was Patrick McGinnity, included for his first game of the year. He booted a match-high four goals in what would easily be considered the best game of his career to date.

Andrew Gaff was typically productive with 35 disposals and two goals, Chris Masten had 33 touches and Luke Shuey and Matt Priddis were both solid.

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Mark Hutchings kicked three goals as did Josh J Kennedy, though Kennedy was surprisingly quiet for much of the night. Jack Darling and Jamie Cripps each kicked two majors.

Scott Lycett was in good form in his return to the team after being dropped for disciplinary reasons – while he split the hitouts fairly evenly with Matthew Leuenberger, his ability to find the ball and have an impact around the ground made him the clear winner in the ruck battle.

Zach Merrett was the best for the Bombers with 24 touches and 11 tackles – or ‘Zackles’ as the Essendon Twitter account believes they should be called – while Merrett of the Jackson variety along with James Kelly, Craig Bird and Brendon Goddard all saw 20+ disposals in Essendon’s midfield.

Joe Daniher booted a season-high three goals in a quality performance, with Goddard, Courtenay Dempsey, Orazio Fantasia and Mitch Brown the other Essendon goalkickers.

David Zaharakis copped a tag from Jackson Nelson and was kept to just 15 disposals for the night.

Mark Jamar was the main injury concern to come out of the match, he went off early with a hamstring and didn’t return. He was also reported for striking shortly before he went off and will probably miss some weeks for two reasons.

Leuenberger also had his knee looked at but played out the match. There were no apparent injury concerns for the Eagles.

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All in all it was a game that went much as expected, West Coast doing what was needed to get a percentage-boosting win but for the most part playing like they would’ve preferred to be on the couch at home watching Masterchef.

Final score
West Coast Eagles 20.10.130
Essendon Bombers 7.10.52

The Roar’s AFL MVP votes:
3: Andrew Gaff – 35 touches and two goals, the busiest of West Coast’s midfield brigade by some margin and took his chances up forward.

2: Zach Merrett – 24 touches, seven clearances and 11 tackles, a typically busy game for him and he was easily the best for the Bombers.

1: Patrick McGinnity – A bit of a surprise here, but he was excellent, kicking a game-high four goals and involving himself in the game. Good night for him.

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