Western Bulldogs too tall, too quick, too potent for West Coast Eagles at Marvel Stadium

West Australian

12 hours ago

The problem with this version of the Western Bulldogs is they are a cross breed.
Think Great Dane meets greyhound.
With that in mind, West Coast's focus pre-match was how to curb the two forward guns and the aforementioned canine mix, Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy.
The Eagles chose Reuben Ginbey and Sandy Brock respectively for those imposing one-on-ones.
Ginbey's athleticism and power was considered the best match for Naughton, who had a 5cm height advantage.
Ginbey might have considered that a luxury given he gave away 10cm to Riley Thilthorpe in the previous round.
It was the turn of 198cm Brock to face a height disadvantage with Darcy hovering at 208cm.
The problem with Darcy is not only in the aerial battles – he kicked the first quarter goals – but his work at ground level.
The Bulldogs added a third, fourth, fifth and sixth problem to the equation to stretch the West Coast defence, ruckman Tim English and midfielder Marcus Bontempelli's regular forward line drive-bys, coupled with debutant Jordan Croft, at 201cm.
Croft was locked in battle with Rhett Bazzo and just like Darcy, showed he could jump and mark and double up at ground level and kicked two first half goals.
Naughton, Darcy and Croft had six goals by the long break and the threat of a good old fashioned pile on was real with the Dogs' midfield of Ed Richards, Bontempelli, Matthew Kennedy and Tom Liberatore well on top of an undermanned Eagles on-ball division.
By half-time the Dogs had built a 54-point lead on the back of 67 per cent kicking efficiency in their forward half.
They converted a 34-19 inside 50 differential into 11.7 while the Eagles could only post up 2.5 from 42 per cent forward 50 efficiency.
The Dogs also held advantages in forward half intercepts (14-5) and attacking 50 disposals (38-16).
If there were small gains for the Eagles they out-tackled the Dogs, around the ground and inside 50.
The Dogs, who had to win to stay in the finals race, built rather than blasted their leads at each turn, 28, 56, 71 and finally 94.
Was it a disaster? Most pundits thought it would be a 100-plus point massacre. It was close to that, but not quite as bad as the shellackings from recent seasons.
Darcy and Naughton finished with three goals each. Brock and Ginbey in particular fought it out and held their own.
The problem was they also had a blue heeler Sam Davidson and a schnauzer, Rhylee West, who also kicked three each.
There were green shoots sprouting from the blackened landscape for West Coast, even though the visitors could only muster four goals for the match.
Ruckman Matt Flynn toiled hard against English who won on points.
Ryan Maric had plenty of it, 26 possessions, as did Tom McCarthy (25) and the resilient Campbell Chesser (22).
Hamish Davis continued to build, key forward Jamie Shanahan presented, particularly in the first term, with a contested mark and smother, but missed gettable set shots and could have finished with three goals but walked away with 0.3.
First gamer Jacob Newton was handed the subs vest and got his chance just before three quarter time at the expense of Tyler Brockman, and finished with just the one touch.
In the end, it was a fight without any reward for the Eagles against a team that many consider could go deep in September, should they earn the right.
They have one more chance to add to their one win of the season, on Saturday night against the Sydney Swans and then a breather til next season.