West Coast Eagles vs Melbourne Demons: AFL finals highlights, live scores, blog

The West Coast Eagles and the Melbourne Demons face off at Optus Stadium in the second of the AFL Preliminary Finals. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 3:20pm (AEST).

The stories surrounding the second grand final dress rehearsal are varied, emotional and inspiring.

After something of an interrupted season where the Eagles have had key players either cashiered for the year or experiencing significant weeks on the sidelines, coach Adam Simpson has done a brilliant job to have them just two hours away from the big dance.

The Melbourne Football Club have lived the dream, after a rebuild that was initiated by the appointment of Paul Roos six year ago, it has slowly but surely borne fruit under the guidance of new man Simon Goodwin.

It is the fairy tale of the competition, which is saying something considering the amazing injury riddled run of the Magpies.

There are three significant factors at play today and each will feature in determining which of these two clubs will have the resilience and fortitude to prevail.

The much talked about Melbourne mids mean everything to the Dees. They are frantic, intense and elite in their work.

If West Coast lose control of the centre of the ground, as others have done, the Demons can score substantially.

Secondly, the West Coast big men hold a significant power over this match. Jack Darling and Josh Kennedy will pose an immense threat to the Demons defence; a defence that earlier in the season proved too easy to score against for Goodwin’s liking.

Defensively too, West Coast will be intimidating at the back and the more nimble and athletic Melbourne forward half will need to avoid becoming engaged in one on one marking contests from innefective high balls into the area.

Melbourne must bring the ball to ground and restrict West Coast’s marks in the defensive half, from there, the Dees could prove too skilful and agile at ground level.

The third factor looming as decisive is the ‘noise of affirmation’ created by the West Coast fans. From all reports, this is the noisiest sporting stadium in the country at present and the free kick data is inrefutable when it comes to the effect it has on umpires.

Let’s hope that with the cream of the crop officiating this match, the noise might play less of a role than it has in the past.

This could be a match for ages. The young Dees, seemingly riding a wave of energy created by much of the AFL community and the tough and consistent West Coast, looking for a return to the glory days of the 1990s.

One of them will play Collingwood in the grand final. It should be a hell of a lot of fun finding out which.

Prediction
Both teams could win this contest quite easily. Melbourne could run the Eagles off the park, as they have done to many other teams this year.

Alternatively, Kennedy and Darling could kick ten between them and the Demon defenders might be caught out by one of the most potent attacking duos in the league.

I’ll go with the former and the Demons to win by 33 points.

Catch all the action on The Roar, live coverage from 3:20pm (AEST).

Where: Optus Stadium, Perth
When: Saturday 22nd September 2018, 3.20pm(AEST)
TV: Fox Footy, Seven Network
Betting: West Coast Eagles $1.80, Melbourne Demons $2.05

West Coast Eagles
B Shannon Hurn, Tom Barrass, Will Schofield
HB Thomas Cole, Jeremy McGovern, Lewis Jetta
C Dom Sheed, Luke Shuey, Chris Masten
HF Mark LeCras, Jack Darling, Mark Hutchings
F Willie Rioli, Josh J. Kennedy, Jamie Cripps
FOL Scott Lycett, Elliot Yeo, Jack Redden
I/C Liam Ryan, Liam Duggan, Daniel Venables, Nathan Vardy

Melbourne Demons
B Neville Jetta, Oscar McDonald, Jordan Lewis
HB Christian Salem, Sam Frost, Michael Hibberd
C Mitch Hannan, Nathan Jones, Angus Brayshaw
HF Jake Melksham, Tom McDonald, James Harmes
F Aaron vandenBerg, Sam Weideman, Alex Neal-Bullen
FOL Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney
I/C Christian Petracca, Charlie Spargo, Dom Tyson, Joel Smith