Eagles game newspaper reports

[one-eyed]

Wirrpanda celebrates 150th with big win
15 April 2006   
Herald Sun
AAP

WEST Coast has continued its powerful start to the season, outlasting another gallant Richmond performance to record a third straight victory, 20.16 (136) to 14.6 (90).

With David Wirrpanda celebrating his 150th game for the club the Eagles had a three goal, third quarter burst from their other indigenous star Ashley Sampi to thank for breaking open the game.

Before Sampi's successive strikes Richmond had belied their $6.50 outsider status, matching the Eagles' midfield pace with tenacious tackling and decent discipline.

But eight goals in the third term was just too much for Richmond to handle, with Matthew Richardson's four for the game, and Shane Tuck's 28 touches among their highlights.

Perhaps drawing inspiration from Hawthorn's stunning upset against Geelong earlier in the day, the Tigers burst out of the blocks with a three goal burst in the first six minutes.

Former Docker Troy Simmonds was enjoying his return to Subiaco, getting the better of his early tussles with Dean Cox, to secure the Tigers a steady flow of ball inside 50.

It took Matthew Richardson 80 seconds to open his account - and double his season's goal tally - after he easily fended off Darren Glass, with Chris Hyde and Patrick Bowden finding more space than the Eagles should have allowed them to continue the visitors' great start.

After racking up 60 tackles against St Kilda last week, the Tigers were setting a similar standard with their incessant pressure.

After Daniel Jackson and Richard Tambling bookended an Andrew Embley goal, Tigers' fans were sensing an upset.

But the Eagles refused to buckle and, after a mistake by Greg Tivendale led to Chris Judd's first goal of the year, Mark Seaby's pack mark and goal gave the Eagles their first lead of the night.

Beau Waters' first senior goal bust the Eagles lead out to 13 points at halftime.

Concern over the effect the firm Subiaco Oval surface might have on Nathan Brown's recovering broken leg did not surface, because the Richmond talisman could not find the leather, his one kick in the first half a shot out of bounds on the full.

Wirrpanda, becoming a life member ten years after making first Eagles appearance as a 16-year-old, marked his special night with a special goal, starting the second half with a fantastic major from close to the touchline, sparking the Eagles into life.

Sampi matched his senior colleague's effort from the same pocket to double the Eagles' halftime advantage, and then soccered for a second.

After Richardson's third for the game kept Tigers' fans interested, Sampi's third for the quarter restored West Coast's superiority, with the sight of youngster Tom Roach leaving Subiaco for x-rays on a suspected broken jaw compounding Richmond's woes.

After being shaded early, Cox reaffirmed his possible Brownlow chances with two fourth term goals to go with his 23 touches, and Quinten Lynch's goal after the siren capped anther impressive Eagles' display.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,18827226%255E20322,00.html

[one-eyed]

Bold Tigers blitzed
16 April 2006   
Sunday Herald Sun
Digby Beacham

AS far as spectacles go, it was ordinary. As far as John Worsfold is concerned, he could not care less.

West Coast maintained its unbeaten status when it overcame a heavy flood in perfect conditions at Subiaco to dispose of Richmond by 46 points, blitzing the visitors with an 8.3 to 3.2 third-term that illustrated the gulf in class between the teams.

Tigers coach Terry Wallace declared this week he would like to employ the man-on-man defensive tactic against the Eagles that had worked so well for Sydney, particularly in September last year.

Wallace was true to his word as his undermanned, yet gallant charges did their best to stifle their opponents.

But as almost everyone expected, the class of the Eagles shone through when they upped their workrate, improved their efficiency and benefited significantly from being able to call on a greater spread of contributors.

Lesser lights Adam Hunter, Mark Nicoski, Rowan Jones and Quinten Lynch were clear winners on the night, combining with the class of Chad Fletcher, Dean Cox, Andrew Embley, Chris Judd, Ben Cousins, Tyson Stenglein and milestone man David Wirrpanda to ensure the final result was a lopsided one.

Indeed, Wirrpanda's night mirrored that of his team.

In his 150th game for the club, Wirrpanda struggled to contain Chris Hyde early and then found himself on the nippy Richard Tambling, who kicked a goal soon after being moved to a forward pocket.

But as the game progressed, the veteran Eagles small defender became highly effective.

Conversely, you had to look far and wide for Richmond's better performers.

Veteran forward Matthew Richardson toiled throughout to finish with 4.1, Shane Tuck tallied 28 disposals, Kane Johnson worked hard opposed to Judd and Patrick Bowden was serviceable.

Tiger youngster Thomas Roach was taken to hospital during the third quarter with a suspected fractured jaw and dependable key defender Darren Gaspar failed to complete the match because of a hamstring strain.

Richmond had the game's opening two goals inside the first four minutes thanks to Richardson and Hyde.

While the Tigers were slick, ran in waves off half-back and were able to hit targets going forward, the Eagles were sloppy early on and found a heap of Richmond bodies down the corridor, forcing them to go wide when they attacked.

And did they go wide.

The Eagles forwards presented left and right, and zig-zagged in an attempt to discover space and because of the congestion, it was no surprise to see the home team amass 114 disposals by quarter-time.

Although they shared the ball far too much, the Eagles were only five points adrift of Richmond at the first change, yet twice found themselves 10 points in arrears early in the next term, the second time after Tambling converted from 40m in the eighth minute.

But West Coast kicked the game's next five goals – either side of half-time.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,18827917%255E19742,00.html

[one-eyed]

Eagles overrun depleted Tigers
By Mark Duffield
The Age
April 16, 2006

WEST COAST 3.3 7.10 15.13 20.16 (136) RICHMOND 4.2 6.3 9.5 14.6 (90)
Goals: West Coast: A Embley 3 A Sampi 3 Q Lynch 2 D Cox 2 A Hunter 2 J Graham M Nicoski C Judd M Seaby B Waters D Wirrpanda M Braun R Jones. Richmond: M. Richardson 4, P. Bowden 2, S. Tuck 2, C. Hyde, D. Jackson, R. Tambling, N. Brown, K. Pettifer, G. Tivendale.
Best: West Coast: C. Fletcher, A. Sampi, T. Stenglein, D. Cox, A. Hunter. Richmond: M. Richardson, S. Tuck, K. Johnson, P. Bowden, J. Bowden.
Umpires: C. Donlon, D. Margetts, S. Ryan. Official Crowd: 39,436 at Subiaco Oval.

The West Coast stats sheet had an unfamiliar look to it at half-time last night.

Expected to dominate the round-three clash with winless Richmond at their home-ground fortress Subiaco Oval, the Eagles were looking in some pretty funny places for forward impetus.

There were no multiple goalkickers - six players had kicked one. There was no decisive midfield influence wielded by Chris Judd. But maligned forward Quinten Lynch, roaming far up the ground for his kicks, had been prolific.

The scoreboard at least looked vaguely familiar, with the Eagles taking a 13-point buffer to the long break. And by full-time it was a hauntingly familiar scene for a visiting team.

The Eagles had won 20.16 (136) to 14.6 (90), running their opponents off their feet yet again.

The goal scorers might have been slightly different, with Ashley Sampi booting three and best-on-ground defender Adam Hunter drifting forward to kick two.

But Richmond was unable to take much solace from that. After an enterprising first half, the Tigers had spent the second half watching the Eagles score mount along with their own injury toll. Thomas Roach was getting X-rays on a jaw injury and Darren Gaspar and Mark Coughlan had hamstring problems.

Holding the side together were midfielder Shane Tuck, who added two goals to a mountain of possessions, and Matthew Richardson, who kicked four goals on Darren Glass.

West Coast, meanwhile, had good players everywhere. Hunter had reigned supreme in defence and got solid support from David Wirrpanda and Mark Nicoski, Chad Fletcher had a heap of the ball midfield and Lynch had a night out, kicking two goals along with 23 possessions.

Richmond had made a promising start, with Chris Hyde and Patrick Bowden providing enterprising run off a centre wing and Richardson proving a handful. He won a toe-to-toe wrestle with Glass to take a chest mark after a minute to kick the first goal of the match.

He showed the other great strength of his game - stamina - on a gut-busting lead from the square to take a sprawling chest mark and nail a 50-metre shot to kick the Tigers' fourth and give them a slim quarter-time lead.

Richmond continued to lead into the second quarter, but each time the Tigers threatened to take a foothold in the match they stagnated.

Leading by 10 points six minutes into the term, Richmond won a critical centre clearance but Jeremy Humm fell while trying to step inside an Eagles opponent, his desperate handball on the way down found former teammate Chad Fletcher and before Richmond could blink, Andrew Embley had kicked the goal, which brought the Eagles back within a kick.

It is fair to say it wasn't the glorious return to Subiaco Oval Humm - an Eagles squad member for five years and 22 games before Richmond rookie-listed him - would have hoped for.

Assigned Fletcher, he watched the Eagles left-footer run up 16 first-half touches while he struggled for seven.

But the Tigers were doing well in other midfield areas and holding their own, if not holding sway. Richard Tambling kicked the goal that eased them clear again but then, at the 18-minute mark of the quarter, Greg Tivendale turned onto his left foot and straight into an oncoming tackler after receiving an Andrew Raines handball in defence. The ball spilled to Judd, who kicked the goal and levelled the scores.

Ninety seconds later, Mark Seaby took a towering pack mark in the goal square and put West Coast in front for the first time in the match.

It had taken them the best part of two quarters to get there - but you got the feeling right at that moment that Richmond was unlikely to see the lead again.

By three-quarter-time the Tigers could barely see where the Eagles were leading from.

The 13-point half-time spread had blown out to 44 points. The dream of an unlikely win was fast becoming the nightmare of a blow-out defeat.

Sampi became an explosive influence on the match, kicking three third-quarter goals in the space of 10 minutes, Rowan Jones, Lynch and Hunter had added goals of their own and the game was gone.

The last quarter became a matter of playing out time, although the AFL's early-season form player Dean Cox kicked two goals to put his name under the nose of the umpires and the Tigers' injury toll mounted with Gaspar and Coughlan leaving the field.

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/04/15/1144521550203.html