THE MORE you look at it, the more you marvel at West Coast's effort in limiting Collingwood to a 20-point victory.
The Magpies won every one of the basic statistics except hit-outs, the one area in which the Eagles had a clear victory.
Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox dominated the out-of-sorts Darren Jolly, even if Cox's performance was limited by hip-related back spasms.
The Eagles won the hit-outs 50 to 29, but the more telling statistic is that Collingwood won the clearances 53 to 31.
The Collingwood midfielders really did dominate, with Dane Swan having 41 disposals and Scott Pendlebury 38.
Matt Priddis, with 24, led the Eagles' disposal count.
The areas in which the Pies most dominated were handball receives (171-110) and uncontested possessions (263-168).
Some of that, however, can be down to game plan. Collingwood takes the ball around the boundary whereas West Coast seeks to bring the ball through the middle.
The most important area in which the Eagles broke even with the Magpies was in output from key forwards.
For Collingwood, Travis Cloke took four marks and kicked one goal while Chris Dawes took two marks and kicked one goal.
Eric McKenzie did well on Cloke and Darren Glass was all over Dawes.
For West Coast, Quinten Lynch took six marks while Josh Kennedy took five marks, all contested.
Lynch kicked three goals and Kennedy one.
Chris Tarrant did a reasonable job of keeping Kennedy honest, but the match-up of Alan Toovey on Lynch was extraordinary.
Toovey!
He normally plays on small, annoying half-forward flankers, but in this match he did a manful job on Lynch, who took most of his six marks upfield.
Collingwood will be grateful when customary key defender Ben Reid returns from his groin injury, assuming he does.
The Eagles went into the match with 10 players who had never played in AFL finals, whereas the Magpies had only one, Alex Fasolo, who was substituted on in the last quarter.
The Eagles also had to overcome the fact that they were playing on the MCG for only the second time this season. The other occasion was a 52-point loss to Collingwood in round 10.
The only thing that the Eagles really had going for them in this qualifying final was a willingness to persist.
They showed how it is that they won 17 matches, a performance that in many seasons would have landed them on top.
To be sure, the Eagles have some upside after this loss.
The winner of tomorrow's elimination final between Carlton and Essendon would be facing the trip west with some concern.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
