Australian Football

Match Report

Travelling to Perth to face the might of the West Coast Eagles was always going to be a tall order for an inexperienced North Melbourne side playing its first final since 2008 and it proved to be one well beyond them as they were trounced to the tune of 96 points at Subiaco on Sunday. While the Eagles will go into their next match against Collingwood high on confidence, the Kangaroos will be bitterly disappointed in finishing a season of improvement on such a low note.

To have any chance of victory at the Subiaco fortress, it was vital that North Melbourne got away to a fast start against the heavily-favoured Eagles. Unfortunately for Chris Scott and his men, the day's fast start belonged entirely to West Coast and the Eagles' rapid-fire movement of the ball from defence into attack led to a barrage of first-quarter goals to Jack Darling, Josh Hill, Andrew Embley, Luke Shuey and even Eric Mackenzie, whose goal was the first in his 78-game career.

At quarter-time the Eagles led 46 to 3 and, although North Melbourne showed some resistance in the second term, kicking two goals to the Eagles' four, the half-time margin was 54-points and the match was as good as over.

North Melbourne did show some sprit in the third term and they were able to generate some run-and-carry for the first time in the match. This translated into goals to Matt Campbell (two), Lachie Hansen, Ben Cunnington, Brent Harvey and Drew Petrie. But while goals came to the Kangaroos, they were unable to stem the flow at the other end and West Coast kicked four goals of their own during the term.

With the margin 43 points at the final change, it remained only to be seen whether the Kangaroos fought the match out or if the Eagles would put the "foot on the throat" and career away with the game. To the despair of North fans but the delight of the Eagle throng at Subiaco, the latter proved to be the case. West Coast piled on nine goals for the term with big men, Dean Cox, Nic Naitanui, Josh Kennedy and Quinten Lynch all joining in the fun.

The final margin was 96 points, the equal ninth-higest in finals history and the Eagles' highest ever winning margin in a final. Best for the Eagles were Embley, Darling and Kerr, while for the Roos, captain Andrew Swallow toiled hard all day, as did Jack Ziebell and Ben Cunnington.

The Eagles will face Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday night. A win in that match will see them meet Sydney in Sydney for the right to play in the Grand Final. The Eagles have an injury concern in Beau Waters, who was subbed off in the second quarter with what appeared to be a reasonably serious foot injury.

Despite its inglorious exit, those at North Melbourne will be rightly pleased with the progress made by the Kangaroos in 2012, and the club's leadership will be keen to see the Shinboners go deeper into September next season.

GOALS
West Coast: Darling, Embley, Kennedy 4; Lynch 3; Hill, Mackenzie, Shuey, McGinnity, Masten, Cox, Naitanui, Hurn, Kerr
North Melbourne: Campbell, Harvey 3; Hansen, Cunnington, Petrie

BEST - THE AGE
West Coast: Embley, Kerr, Priddis, Glass, Cox, Darling, Kennedy, S. Selwood
North Melbourne: Swallow, Ziebell, Cunnington

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
West Coast: Darling, Embley, Naitanui, Kerr, Cox, S. Selwood, Butler, Hurn
North Melbourne: Swallow, Ziebell, Campbell, Cunnington, Thompson

COACHES' COMMENTS
John Worsfold (WC): Our challenge is to continue to play our best footy week in, week out, so today from the very start, our ball use, our run and all those sorts of things were at the level we were looking for. We've pulled up pretty well and we'll be up and ready for the next challenge against Collingwood. We've still got a developing squad so Shuey and Scott Selwood and Natanui learned a lot from playing in a finals series last year.

Brad Scott (NM): We got beaten by a team that, when they push forward, they push forward very, very hard. We got badly beaten early and it was a pretty terrible 10 minutes in the last quarter. Once the tank ran dry, it really did. I'm really proud of the guys getting to this point and we've had to expend every bit of energy and competitiveness that we've had to get to this point. On one hand it's a credit to them for getting to this point but it's a bitterly disappointing way to go out, that's for sure. The great thing about finals footy is that it lays you bare. There's nowhere to hide. Our challenge is to not paper over any cracks. The cracks that got exposed today, we've got to fix them.

UMPIRES: Donlon, McBurney, Jeffery