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.
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.
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.
Big Tony
Guest
Fair enough TomC. Maybe the main reason is that in general the winning teams tend to win the free kick count as generally they are the ones making the play while the losing team is trying to stop them, often infringing to do so? West Coast have a very good record at home over the past decade which could be also reflected in the free kick count. Remember that free kicks also include "holding the ball" decisions. I'm just sick of reading comments to the effect of "the AFL is corrupt, West Coast are cheats, the umpires are biased toward them". Do people actually think this is true? I hope not, otherwise... why bother watching? People over-estimate the influence umpires can have on a game in general. Although "bad" decisions stand out, in reality it means very little in the course of a game and just gives the fans something to blame other than their own team's performance.
Big Tony
Guest
Pretty sure Dempsey was called for a dangerous tackle, with Gaff's legs being lifted up and his body dumped with arm's pinned. Not saying I agree with it, thought it was a harsh call. The dangerous tackle rule was brought in about 12 months ago from memory because of a couple of players being concussed with spear-tackles?
Casper
Guest
Michael - don't agree. WA fans take it to another level. When Essendon played well in the first half they had one free kick, when they played poorly they had about 10. Not suggesting the umpires are biased, maybe just unduly influenced. WA crowds are the pits though when it comes to umpiring.
JR
Guest
Can someone tell me why Dempesy was penalised for his ripper tackle in the 4th? And what was the downfield free kick (which managed to move the ball from mid wing to 20 out, roughly 70+ metres) was for?
michael RVC
Roar Pro
Casper, Every single home crown in the land do exactly the same thing that the WCE crowds do in response to umpiring of the game, evry week. IHP's silly assessment has been shown up in comments above. Poor football will result in lop sided free kick counts, especially when the game is running hot. We see this every week across the code. Essendon are playing poor football. Nothing to see here, move on.
Casper
Guest
It could be the effect of the home crowd, as they tirelessly boo every decision that goes against them. Last night the count was 10-1 at half time. Even when Essendon got their third decision for the night, the crowd went bananas. They reckon the umps aren't aware of the free kick count, but Interestingly gave Essendon about 10 frees in the second half.
TomC
Roar Guru
A quick look at the stats tells me that West Coast have the second highest free kick differential in the league. So while 1.14 might be closer to parity than the Dogs' 1.34 it's still not really equal. The Dogs' disparity isn't hard to figure out: they have a gameplan built almost entirely on ball possession, and concede by far the fewest free kicks. It's a bit harder to figure out in West Coast's case, who are rated 16th for possession differential. I don't think it has much to do with Naitanui. He's ranked 23rd so far this season for free kicks received per game. This looks like being the eleventh year in the past twelve the Eagles are in the top three teams for free kick differential, and in most of those years they were first. They do seem to get the rub of the green at home, more so than other clubs. I'm not entirely sure why. It can't simply down to the effect of the home crowd. It probably doesn't affect results much, but it's still interesting.
Big Tony
Guest
-West Coast are second for "frees for" this year behind Collingwood. -The team with the biggest positive free kick differential is the Bulldogs. They recieve 1.3 "frees for" for every "free against" they give away. West coast are close to parity at 1.1. -West Coast get a lot of their frees from ruck infringements as teams try to stop Nic Nat jumping. -Generally stronger teams earn more frees than weaker ones because they are first to the ball. West Coast have played all weak teams at home this year bar Adelaide so often end up on the end of a positive differential at home. In the Adelaide game the free kick count was 19-16 in Adelaide's favor. -Umpires tend to be swayed by home crowds in general. There have been studies on it and it is a phenomenon across all sports and teams. The effect isn't massive though. -Free kick counts don't need to be equal. If you watch the game the umpires mostly get it right... a few decisions here and there might be soft etc but overall it has almost zero impact on a game of footy.
I hate pies
Guest
Questions really need to be raised about the umpiring in WA. At one point in the first half last night, when Essendon was still competitive, the free kick count was 9-1 in favour of West Coast, yet again. This happens week in, week out over there. It's been going on for so long that it can't possibly be coincidence, and West Coast can't possibly have earned such a free kick differential. It's time the AFL looked into this. No fan can be expected to take the AFL's word that they review each game on its merits when this happens every single West Coast home game. The bias is as obvious as the nose on your face, and it's just another example of the unfairness of the AFL. If the umpires can't adjudicate one single West Coast home game fairly how can supporters have any trust in their competency? If they can't do the job without being influenced by the crowd then they can't do the job. It's time for a transparent AFL (there's an oxymoron for you) review.