It is not often that a team can be thumped by 17 goals and start favourite the following weekend, but that was the case in this match, with both teams coming off beltings last week, but the home-ground advantage saw West Coast get the nod from the punters.
And with good cause - in the third term, West Coast kicked seven goals to Richmond’s two to wrap up the game by the last break.
Phil Matera was the shining light up front for the hosts, kicking three in each of the first and third terms, while Dean Cox again did well in the ruck, along with Mark Seaby.
Kane Johnson won his duel with West Coast playmaker Chad Fletcher and Joel Bowden, Nathan Brown and Brad Ottens tried hard.
But once again, it was the West Coast midfield that led the way, with skipper Ben Cousins, Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr racking up possessions at will as they took control of the game after the long break.
Callum Chambers convincingly won his battle with Tiger captain Wayne Campbell, while Darren Glass had very little to do guarding Tiger spearhead Matthew Richardson who finished with two goals.
West Coast got off to the best possible start when Matera kicked one off the ground in the goal square, but the game then hit a dry patch until Brad Ottens goaled from a free kick 12 minutes later.
Matera then kicked another two in five minutes and youngster Mark Nicoski got free to take a mark at 45 metres while miles in the clear and West Coast were 18 points up, but late goals to Brown and Ottens meant a five-point break at the first break, and just its third first quarter win of the year.
Andrew Kellaway left the ground with an injury to his left shoulder in the first minute of the second term after a collision with Andrew McDougall, but it wasn’t until the 11th minute that Richmond kicked the first of the term - its third in a row – when Matthew Richardson marked at 40 metres and converted.
Sam Butler, playing his first AFL game, kicked his first after he marked and then cleverly played on at the top of the arc, and the third and final goal for the term came from a stoppage when Andrew Krakouer snapped cleverly across his body, and the teams went to the long break locked together on 36 points.
West Coast them blew the game away as a contest in the third with seven goals to two, three to Matera and a couple to Chambers, and the game limped to its conclusion with West Coast extending its lead to 37 points.
Richmond coach Danny Frawley said his side was unable to maintain its intensity in the second half.
“Our third quarter really let us down in all departments,” he said.
“The way we went about it…our tackling was substandard, our hardness at the ball in the third quarter wasn’t where it was in the first half.
“Our decision making slash skill level allowed them to gain some confidence and against a quality team on their home ground that is what happens.”
Frawley also said the Tigers didn’t grasp their first half opportunities to put pressure on the Eagles.
“We could have been three or four goals up if we had used the ball a little bit better in the first half.”
West Coast: 4.2 5.6 12.10 14.16 (100)
Richmond: 3.3 5.6 7.6 9.9 (63)
Goals: West Coast: Matera 6, Chambers 3, Nicoski, Butler, Cox, Seaby, Judd
Richmond: Richardson, Ottens 2, Brown, Krakouer, Stafford, Pettifer, Fleming
Best: West Coast: Matera, Cousins, Judd, Cox, Staker, Embley
Richmond: Johnson, Bowden, Ottens, Brown, Chaffey
Injuries: West Coast:
Richmond: Kellaway (left shoulder)
Changes: West Coast: Nil
Richmond: Fiora replaced in the selected side by Marsh
Reports: West Coast: Glass (wrestling with Richardson)
Richmond: Richardson (wrestling with Glass)
Umpires: Hendrie, McInerney, Margetts
Crowd: 38,517 at Subiaco Oval
