Australian Football

Match Report

The third game for the Saturday arvo timeslot was just across town in the city's western fringe, a West Side Story of sorts as the Bloods hosted the Eagles at City Mazda Stadium in Richmond. The Bloods copped a 10-goal hiding from the Eagles in their last match back in Round 2 at Woodville, you'd probably have to go back to the 2015 Grand Final as the last game that Westies won against their western suburbs rival. 

The Bloods came into this game with some confidence though, nicking a five-point win against the Redlegs last week to take consecutive victories for the season. But the Eagles have been in fine form themselves, they brought the Magpies down by 27 points. Accuracy on goal by the Eagles was going to be of some concern, they peppered their goals for a return of 2.8 while the Bloods kicked two goals to be just eight points down at quarter-time. But from here, despite the continuation of missed opportunities on goal, the Eagles would pile on the points to lead by 31 points at the long break after scoring 4.6 to 1.1. It was definitely not going to be the Bloods' day this time around, despite the Eagles' rotten day in front of the sticks. The Bloods were held goal-less in the third quarter, managing just three behinds to the visitors' 1.5 which stretched the gap out to 39 points. The Eagles improved on their goal-kicking in the final term and booting the inaccuracy bug into the Westies camp, their four goals without a miss to the Bloods' 2.6 took their winning margin to 45 points when it should have been a lot more. 

Chris Hall was named best on ground for the Eagles, the Bloods named Josh Schiller as their standout.