Australian Football

Match Report

About an hour after things kicked off at Prospect, match number three was taking place at the City Mazda Stadium in Richmond for the Western Derby between the Bloods and the Eagles. All the points from their two matches last year went to the Eagles, firstly with their 34-point win in Round 1, then a 21-point victory in Round 11. While the Bloods have been trying to find their form in Season 2019, the Eagles' faithful are wondering what is up with their mob. An opening round win against North a distant memory with losses to Sturt and Adelaide over the last two weekends. West showed little glimpses of what they could do against the Dogs and if there was anytime that the Bloods needed to respond it was now. 

Although they peppered their goal in the opening quarter, the Eagles weren't getting that much luck at their end themselves. West scored 5.6 to 1.4 to lead by 26 points at the first change. The goal-scoring yips continued for the Eagles in the second term, chipping a mere few points from the Bloods' lead going into the half-time break instead of perhaps nicking the lead. Their score of 3.6 to 3.1 brought the gap back to 21 points come half-time. That was as close as the Eagles got to the Bloods, the home side producing a game-breaking third quarter effort of 7.1 to the Eagles' 2.3 to take a 49-point lead into the final stanza. There was little more that the Bloods needed to do from here, the gap was cut back to 37 points in the end after the Eagles scored five goals to three in the closing term. 

Will Snelling was named best for West, the Eagles named Jordan Foote as their best on ground.