One was the boom recruit of the summer and the other an excitement machine on whose broad shoulders the Eagles hope to build a premiership dynasty, but neither Sharrod Wellingham nor Nic Naitanui had played a game in 2013 until the outing against the Western Bulldogs. While Wellingham started in a blaze of glory with 11 first-half disposals and 26 for the game, Naitanui wore the red substitute’s vest until the 12-minute mark of the third quarter. When he entered the fray he started to jump over the top of the tireless Will Minson… and the rest of the Bulldogs. The excitement in the crowd was palpable. West Coast now sits at 2-4 and has very winnable games against Brisbane, North Melbourne, GWS, Richmond and St Kilda to look forward to. It was also missing Beau Waters in this game, and with both Matt Rosa and newcomer Mark Hutchings dominating in the WAFL, they are firmly back in contention.?
2. The forward stoppages?
The Bulldogs didn’t have a Kennedy, Darling or LeCras in their forward line, but what they did have was the ability to kick goals from the stoppages. In fact, it was about the only thing that kept the Bulldogs in the game early. On four occasions they were able to scramble goals from the contests and, if West Coast is really to challenge for a flag, they will not be able to allow players like the Bulldogs’ Clay Smith and Adam Cooney such space at the contest. Meanwhile, Brendan McCartney will now be hoping he can get some proven goal-kickers back into the side. Daniel Giansiracusa, Ryan Griffen, Robert Murphy and Tory Dickson would be a good start, though Shaun Higgins is out for the season. ?
3. The Goaliwobbles?
In the past two weeks West Coast has been horrible in front of goals. By kicking a total of 17 goals and 42 behinds, they effectively cost themselves eight premiership points in narrow losses to both Carlton and Port Adelaide, but that finally turned around against the Western Bulldogs. West Coast was deadly accurate right from the moment Dean Cox nailed a set shot from the boundary outside the 50m arc just two minutes into the match. Last week, he hit the post when having a set shot from 25m out on a slight angle. Only the occasional poor kick from Mark LeCras – usually the best set shot in the side – was left to remind Eagles supporters of the past fortnight.
4. A tall order?
Now that Nic Naitanui is back for West Coast, what will become of Callum Sinclair? The young forward-cum-ruckman forced his way into the Eagles’ line-up at the expense of Scott Lycett. And he looks like he belongs at this level, but how will John Worsfold fit the likes of Cox, Naitanui and Sinclair into his side given he couldn’t possibly pick Sinclair as a forward in place of Kennedy, Darling or LeCras. For the first time in a long time, West Coast’s selection headaches will be caused by arguments over which player should be dropped, rather than which player should be brought in. On a wet day, or against a small running side, Sinclair could be the unlucky one.
5. Bulldogs good in the clinches
After watching West Coast cruise to victory by 70 points, you could be forgiven for thinking the home team would have won every statistical category. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, the Bulldogs won the clearances 49-40 and the contested possessions 158-145. But it was in the uncontested possessions category that they took a 224-158 bath. “It means when the game is stationary and stops, we are very good at it,” Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney said. “And that’s something we want to put in place and you have to do that. But there’s a lot of space out there, too, and you have to be prepared to break momentum by getting your hands dirty and sometimes that means just running hard to fill space, to cover, to slow the opposition down. And we’ll get there, but we need our leaders to show the right way and we need our young people to not lose confidence and know that it’s the right way to play and the correct way to play.”
