West Coast closed out their WAFL pre-season campaign in style on Sunday, finishing strongly to claim a 17\u2011point win over East Fremantle at Mineral Resources Park.<\/p>\n
Fielding their strongest WAFL side bolstered by 14 AFL-listed players including Tom Cole, Ryan Maric and new recruits Fin Macrae and Harry Schoenberg, the Eagles produced an energetic and encouraging performance ahead of the official season commencement.<\/p>\n
The home side burst out of the gates early, led by excellent defensive pressure and lively ruck work from Bailey Williams and Harry Barnett. Williams set the tone with a strong early mark, and after the Sharks opened their account, Macrae fired back with a brilliant running goal from the centre square to restore West Coast\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n
Sam Cipriani, Thomas Edwards-Baldwin and some sharp ball movement through the middle kept the scoreboard moving, while newly appointed captain Callum Jamieson impressed behind the ball with strong intercept play.<\/p>\n
A composed finish from Edwards-Baldwin, created by a neat connection from Harvey Johnston, ensured the Eagles took a six\u2011point lead into the first break.<\/p>\n
West Coast carried that momentum into the second term, slotting consecutive goals to push the margin out to 18-points as Archie Watt imposed himself around stoppages and Macrae continued to find dangerous positions forward of centre.<\/p>\n
Caleb Datson added another to extend the lead further, but East Fremantle rallied late, capitalising on a handful of forward-half opportunities to narrow the gap to just five-points at half time.<\/p>\n
The Sharks carried that surge into the third quarter, kicking the opening two goals to hit the front for the first time in the match. Schoenberg responded with a commanding, physical display in the midfield as he continued to push for an AFL debut. Malakai Champion kept the Eagles close with a clean finish that trimmed the margin to three-points.<\/p>\n
Despite their pressure, the Eagles were left to rue missed chances as East Fremantle made the most of theirs, edging the lead out to 14-points at the final change.<\/p>\n
Needing a spark, West Coast rose to the moment in the fourth quarter. Tylah Williams and Harvey Johnston hit the scoreboard in quick succession to bring the Eagles within a kick, before a brilliant centre clearance from Macrae found Schoenberg, who released Clay Hall for a composed finish that swung the momentum back in the home side\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
A spectacular contested grab from Bailey Williams, capping off one of the performances of the day, pushed the lead out again. But the Sharks responded with back\u2011to\u2011back goals to briefly reclaim a three\u2011point advantage.<\/p>\n
From there, the Eagles stamped their authority on the contest, dominating territory and applying relentless forward-half pressure. A late surge saw the Eagles regain control and finish 17-points clear to close out an encouraging pre\u2011season performance.<\/p>\n
WEST COAST\u00a0 5.2\u00a0\u00a0 4.1\u00a0\u00a0 1.3\u00a0\u00a0 7.4 \u00a0(112)<\/p>\n
EAST FREMANTLE\u00a0 4.2\u00a0\u00a0 4.2\u00a0\u00a0 4.5\u00a0\u00a0 2.2\u00a0 (95)<\/p>\n
GOALS
West Coast:\u00a0B.Williams (2), Macrae (2), Edwards-Baldwin (2), Hall (2), Kernutt, Datson, Champion, T. Williams, Johnston, Cipriani.<\/p>\n
East Fremantle:\u00a0Bailey (3), Ball (2), Pickett (2), Austin (2), Robinson, Cleaver, Vladich, Stockden, McManus, Marsh, Smartt, Benning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Coast closed out their WAFL pre-season campaign in style on Sunday, finishing strongly to claim a 17\u2011point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-557404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}