Click here<\/a><\/p>\n\u2018KEY DEFENDER\u2019S DREAM\u2019: UNLIKELY SUSPECTS SHINE AMID POOR EXECUTION<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not often that key defenders are front and centre of attention as a collective group, but poor execution and usage of the Sherrin by foot on Saturday night saw the proactive types rack up the intercept possessions. <\/p>\n
At half time, West Coast (-13.1%) and Port Adelaide (-6.9%) were operating well below their season average with disposal efficiency inside 50 in a scrappy Optus Stadium encounter.<\/p>\n
It saw West Coast defensive duo Reuben Ginbey and Tylar Young combine for a whopping 15 intercepts in the first half, while usual Power suspects Esava Ratugolea and Aliir Aliir combined for 13 of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a key defender\u2019s dream out there at the moment, with shanked kicks all over the place that are easy to read,\u201d Collingwood AFLW star Ruby Schleicher told Fox Footy at half time.<\/p>\n
\u201cRatugolea\u2019s intercepts are a lot further up the ground, whereas Ginbey\u2019s are close to goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
2018 West Coast premiership player Will Schofield added: \u201cThe disposal\u2019s been poor at both ends, and it\u2019s easier to read that \u2014 especially when you\u2019re playing proactively as a defender.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of these guys (Reuben) Ginbey and (Esava) Ratugolea sit in front of their man, so when there\u2019s pressure on the ball and it\u2019s been butchered all night, it\u2019s a defenders\u2019 dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ratugolea in particular was dealt the tough task of juggling his match-up on 2024 All-Australian Jake Waterman while intercepting.<\/p>\n
Ratugolea leaves the field due to the blood rule on the brink of half time (Photo by Janelle St Pierre via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the 27-year-old, a head knock on the brink of half time saw him leave the field under the blood rule, freeing up his opponent to take multiple shots on goal in his absence \u2014 one of which he converted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been the beneficiary of some of the disposal by West Coast, but he\u2019s had four intercept marks and put himself in the right spots throughout the game,\u201d Schofield said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInterestingly, as the game went into the second quarter, Jake Waterman was the one to come back the other way \u2026 he had seven marks, two goals and really fought his way into the game. A really good battle at that end of the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Coast and Port Adelaide will both be continuing their hunt for an unlikely wildcard finals berth when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[24777,638,8406,64,63,689,55,639,26517,1127,10145,61,2105,292545,142568,677,46,6082,1124,85,7067,3439,348574,23510],"class_list":["post-718949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-aami-community","tag-afl","tag-andrew-mcqualter","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-daniel-carson","tag-fox-footy","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-kickstart-campaign","tag-match-details","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-port-adelaide","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-west-coast-eagles","tag-western-australia","tag-wildcard-finals-race","tag-zak-butters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718949","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=718949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)