Australian Football

Match Report

Melbourne coach Mark Neeld’s horror week got worse when his Demons' side was thumped by West Coast. Having been belted by Brisbane in embarrassing circumstances in round one, Melbourne was forced to dump its major sponsor after the company’s CEO made offensive and racist remarks online - and then Neeld was forced to defend (untrue) allegations he treated indigenous players differently from the rest of the Melbourne playing group. Just one of those events would be distracting enough for a club, but the Dees had to deal with all three. After all that, it wasn’t particularly surprising that the Eagles recorded their biggest-ever winning margin over the Demons. It was a powerful display from West Coast, as they highlighted their premiership credentials with a dominant midfield and potent forward line - although much of the focus was on how bad Melbourne was. The Eagles won the inside 50s (78-32) and had 41 scoring shots to 13. Eagles midfielder Scott Selwood played the best game of his short career, finishing with three goals and 34 disposals. The only downside for the Eagles was a shoulder injury to Norm Smith Medalist Andrew Embley. New recruits James Magner and Mitch Clark (five goals) were by far the best for the shattered visitors.

GOALS:

West Coast: Darling, Lynch 4, S Selwood, Hams, Hill 3, Waters 2, Kerr, Naitanui, Shuey, Kennedy, A Selwood, Gaff
Melbourne: Clark 5, Jones 2, Dunn 2



BEST - AFL.COM.AU
West Coast: S Selwood, Priddis, Shuey, Darling, Waters, Glass, Lynch, Hurn

Melbourne: Magner, Clark, Frawley, Jones, Rivers, McDonald

BEST - HERALD SUN
West Coast: S Selwood, Priddis, Hurn, Shuey, Darling, Waters, Glass, Lynch
Melbourne: Jones, Magner, Clark, Frawley, Rivers, McDonald

COACHES COMMENTS
John Worsfold (WCo): People couldn't see the talent in there, but we thought it would come through and it's starting to. In the second half [Masten] was running extremely strong in those conditions and he ran the game out very well.

Mark Neeld (Mel): The Eagles are very professional outfit ... you watch their stoppage work, and their ball movement, it's precision. That's where we want to get to and it doesn’t happen overnight. We don't condone the loss, no one likes to go through that, that's tough yards.

Umpires: Fila, Leppard, Farmer