The West Coast Eagles overcame some poor play at times to over run the St Kilda Saints by 19 points at Domain Stadium.
St Kilda started the first quarter in a similar fashion to last week getting out to a double-digit lead at the first break.
West Coast meanwhile looked sloppy and at some times disinterested in the first term and two turnovers from kick-ins hurt them on the scoreboard.
Despite the strong opening quarter play the Saints struggled with accuracy in front of the goals kicking 6.7 for the quarter.
The second quarter was very much the same with St Kilda controlling the game for the most part but again the theme of the night for the Saints was kicking at goal, despite have nine more scoring shots than the Eagles the Saints only led at the half time break by nine points.
West Coast was accurate as usual in front of goal but the pressure from St Kilda was suffocating at times and they just couldn’t get momentum.
The third term was a dog fight for both teams with the scoreboard see-sawing, West Coast managed to get the game back to a one-goal St Kilda advantage at the three-quarter time siren.
The fourth was all Josh J Kennedy who had been held in relative check for most of the night but by the end of the game he would have four goals and be the saviour for the West Coast side again.
St Kilda started the quarter well but as time dragged on they ran out of legs, by the time West Coast had started to apply pressure on the scoreboard the Saints were cooked.
The missed shots would ultimately prove costly for St Kilda as West Coast ran away winners.
West Coast Eagles 18.8.116
St Kilda Saints 13.19.97
Ted
Guest
Over the last 5 games between saints and eagles free kick count 110 eagles 53 saints. Very corrupt umpires.
Ted
Guest
Your obviously upset you lost money..As if they will be wooden spooners. You have NFI.
Paul Thompson
Guest
Perfect record and you backed the Saints ?
johnny xerox
Guest
Simpson says the team actually won 3 qtrs in that game. but although it seemed a sloppy outing for the Eagles, it does show some maturity in finishing games or grinding it out. Wellingham and Darling appeared to be making blunders, but so much you dont see on the screen, such as their work rate. Darling has to shake that 'clutsy' tag off, seems to overcook everything, needs to do the 'grasshopper thang' and just relax and let it flow au naturale? ((; he'll come good and prove the slingers wrong. Yeo just has that audacious confidence (like Jack used to have?) and backs himself in. great to see. more power to the Yo-Yo man!
johnny xerox
Guest
yes, he's finally settling in..? was getting tired of the Mitchell hype, almost as though Eagles havent had a best 22 capable of winning games without him! now he needs to just be a consistent/quality working cog.
Don Freo
Guest
Gee Reality Check...if you had a perfect tipping record from last week, you know very little about footy.
me too
Roar Rookie
Something up with the Saints preseason prep. They ran out of gas by halftime last week, and ran out by the final quarter yesterday. Similar thing happend last year in the first game against Port but they excused that due to the missed pre-season game that was washed out. If you're going for finals you can't afford to start slow.
Lroy
Guest
Dude, they didnt play like a side that is going to finish bottom 4.
Lroy
Guest
The Eagles are overusing the handball, breaking clear and hand-balling to a guy standing still, ala playing ''keepy offs'' will end in disaster against the good sides. Surprised the Saints couldnt finish the Eagles off, could be an interesting year for them... they were very good for most of the game.
Paul2
Guest
"The West Coast Eagles overcame some poor play at times to over run the St Kilda Saints by 19 points at Domain Stadium." Stop calling them the "St Kilda Saints", ffs! It's the "St Kilda Football Club" (or just "St Kilda"). The "Saints" is an official nickname: it doesn't attach to the club name in the way that the Eagles does to make "West Coast Eagles". Nor, while we're at it, is it the "Geelong Cats", the "Collingwood Magpies" or the "Essendon Bombers". This really isn't that hard.
Don Freo
Guest
That was a very impressive, grinding win. WC were not as sharp or as switched on as St Kilda in the first half. The Saints didn't fall away until the last 5-10 minutes. WC just kept coming. It was a special game from Yeo but it was the lesser lights like Sheppard, Giles (although Hickey was better), Hill and Masten that impressed me. Mitchell is unacceptably unaccountable. Could not handle Gresham.
Minefield
Guest
Visiting Victorian team suffers at hands of umpires when travelling interstate Now you know what if feels like when interstate teams come to Melbourne..
Reality Check!
Guest
Aint Kilda should be appalled with themselves. This was a once in a lifetime chance to beat the Mighty West Coast Eagles at home, and I backed them in to do it. To have the lead they had and not able to seal the game was just terrible. Put your life savings on them winning the spoon, because they'll clearly never be able to recover from this EMBARRASSMENT. I have a perfect tipping record so you'd be wise to listen to ME.