A gallant West Coast gave League-leaders Adelaide a massive scare but fell nine points short in an unexpected thriller on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
In what was looking to be the biggest upset of the season, Adelaide\u2019s leaders lifted in the final term to help their side come from behind to win 13.9 (87) to West Coast\u2019s 12.6 (78).<\/p>\n
Izak Rankine, who had just three disposals up until half-time, had 20 disposals and a goal in the second half, whilst big man Riley Thilthorpe kicked three second-half goals to help get the Crows over the line.<\/p>\n
For the Eagles and their fans, though they will be disappointed with the loss, they will be buoyed by their side\u2019s performance showing that despite only having one win next to their name on the ladder, they can take it up to the competition\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
The Eagles led for large parts of the game, with both young and old players playing some of their best football for the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young gun Reuben Ginbey was exceptional\u00a0on Thilthorpe\u00a0despite the Adelaide forward getting on top in the final term. Ginbey kept Thilthorpe to six disposals and one mark up until half-time, despite giving away a 10cm height advantage to the key Crow.<\/p>\n
Tim Kelly wound back the clock to put together one of his best games in 2025, finishing with 25 disposals and 10 clearances. In front of goals, 19-year-old Jobe Shanahan kicked three goals as did veteran Liam Ryan.<\/p>\n
In their second last home game of the year, the Eagles came out with an intensity and pressure that startled the top-of-the-table Crows. West Coast\u2019s intent took away time and space and caused key Adelaide players to make uncharacteristic errors.<\/p>\n
Off the back of their turnovers, the Eagles got opportunities of their own, coming through Campbell Chesser and Shanahan. They had just five inside 50s in the first quarter, but were able to score on four occasions.<\/p>\n
Returning to Adelaide\u2019s line-up this week, medium-sized forward Luke Pedlar steadied the ship for the Crows, converting two in the first term after finding himself on the end of the midfield\u2019s work from clearance and kicking accurately.<\/p>\n
But Pedlar\u2019s second goal just before quarter-time was Adelaide\u2019s last until the third term, with West Coast kicking the next six goals, premiership heroes Ryan and Cripps kicking one each just before the main break.<\/p>\n
The Eagles continued with the momentum in the second half when 19-year-old Hamish Davis came out and kicked the first goal of his career, while Shanahan slotted his third.<\/p>\n
Thilthorpe, who had been held quiet by Ginbey, suffered a knock to his neck at the start of the term and left the ground momentarily to be assessed by the Crows medical team. The 201cm forward returned later in the quarter with great impact.<\/p>\n
Rankine and Thilthorpe took the game into their own hands in the final term, with Rankine having eight disposals and slotting a goal and Thilthorpe putting through two pivotal goals to take back the lead and give the Crows the victory.<\/p>\n
Adelaide\u2019s class saw it lift when needed, surviving a scare from a young West Coast side that put together a brave performance.<\/p>\n
The Eagles will travel for their penultimate match of 2025 against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium next Sunday.<\/p>\n
Details<\/p>\n
WEST COAST 3.1 6.4 10.4 12.6 (78)<\/p>\n
ADELAIDE 5.2 5.4 9.5 13.9 (87)<\/p>\n
GOALS<\/p>\n
West Coast:\u00a0Shanahan 3, Ryan 3, Chesser, Baker, Cripps, Davis, Kelly, Brockman<\/p>\n
Adelaide:\u00a0Pedlar 3,\u00a0Thilthorpe 3, Peatling, Dawson, Keays, Soligo, Taylor, Fogarty, Rankine<\/p>\n
BEST<\/p>\n
West Coast:\u00a0Kelly, McCarthy, Shanahan, Ginbey, Ryan<\/p>\n
Adelaide:\u00a0Laird, O\u2019Brien, Rankine, Dawson, Soligo<\/p>\n
INJURIES<\/p>\n
West Coast:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n
Adelaide:\u00a0James\u00a0Peatling (corked thigh)<\/p>\n
SUBSTITUTES<\/p>\n
West Coast: Matt Owies (replaced Tom Gross in the third quarter)<\/p>\n
Adelaide:\u00a0Chayce Jones\u00a0(replaced James Peatling in the third quarter)<\/p>\n
Crowd:\u00a032,845 at Optus Stadium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gallant West Coast gave League-leaders Adelaide a massive scare but fell nine points short in an unexpected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-57949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57949","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=57949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}