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Shuey's performance was faultless. Every possession effective. Massive impact on the game.
Subi would have won if not for some poor umpiring in the last. Della got crucified all day. Eagles jerk gets a soft high tackle free and resulting goal in the last couple of minutes. Then down the other end the Subi player had his head ripped off in front of goal in the dying seconds and nothing. As expected though.

I'm not about to blame the umps Frothy as we had plenty of chances to win but poor execution particularly at goal cost us big time. Both Matera's, Dela, Braut all had very getable shots but didn't convert. I also thought Wardman didn't respond to the spare WCER sent down back in the last. Sokol was taking on 2 or 3 defenders in marking contests and Wardman needed to send the message out to hold it up instead of bombing the ball in.

Great game of footy in front of a very decent crowd. A lot of Eagles punters there in their colours and enjoying a beer in a chocablock clubrooms at halftime, so the club at least had a win in that aspect. Walked into the ground and struck up a chat with an eagles supporter who said he hadn't been to Leederville since the WP days and and hadn't seen a WAFL game for many many years, he thought it was a great venue and looking forward to a good game. Many were there to see Shuey, he was a major drawcard. This weekend should have been a full set of fixtures given no local AFL with byes for both teams, missed opportunity to promote it as the "Back to WAFL" round" come and see great local footy etc etc.

Anyway, to the game, as I said a great game of footy that ebbed and flowed for both teams, WCER jumped us early with slick ball movement involving all their listed players especially Shuey, Hutchings, AhChee and the 2 monsters in the ruck. We saved some face with a goal on the 1/4 time siren after stopping their run from mid qtr. Second qtr was a great spectacle as we clawed our way back with better ball use and good spread, to edge ahead by 1 point. Shuey and co then stamped their class as they dominated the 3rd qtr to have what looked like a match winning lead at 3/4 time but again the boys fought it out right down to the wire to come back from 5 goals down to get within 5pts at the end. The boys were absolutely gassed at the end which showed in some crucial miss handling of the footy late in the game. Kitch, Marsh, Gus, and in particular Sok played well against massive odds, Sok's 6 goal effort was terrific. Dela and Putt battled manfully against to 2 giant WC rucks who were both very physical, some of it outside the rules which the umps seemed to ignore despite it being right under their noses.
We over used the pill a bit at times, putting us under pressure with that extra handball, forgetting we were playing an AFL strength midfield.

Yes if we'd played them when we were initially fixtured it would have been very different but I think the group will take a fair bit out of the loss as we were stretched to our fullest and just fell short.

For me Shuey was the difference in a 5 point result, not just his game play which was on another level, but the example he set for his team mates who he continuously encouraged to keep at it, something the WCER dont normally do, at the end of qtrs he was pulling the group together to gee them up before going to the huddle. Shuey is a great leader and a massive competitor who always plays to win, you could see the affect he had on his team mates. Their midfield of Shuey, Hutchings, West, Ahchee at times and a few others along with the two big ruckman really showed how thin our mids brigade is after Kitch and Marsh. The loss of Horse and Newton was really shown up yesterday. Both Walters and Powell played in the early scratch match and would have made a significant difference if they were fit and available but thats footy.

I doubt WCER will field a team as strong as that again this year especially without Shuey they wont have that crucial leadership he brought to them yesterday.

Swans next week will be a good contest after they were taken down by a very "motivated" Joondy, they should rebound strongly, but I also think Subi will be pretty motivated after that close loss.
 

Great summary mate

The Eagles are shameless. A couple of weeks ago they were not only demanding concessions, but also bagging their top up players, publicly saying they were not good enough and were holding the league players back. Now, after one win, there is an article in the West where the Eagles are praising the top ups and saying "we couldn't have done without them." So, just like that, all is forgiven. Patronising pricks. Basically, if the Eagles get what they want - what they think they deserve - they are all sweetness and light, when things go against them, it's everyone else's fault and the system has to change to accommodate them. 

Interested in the turn out of WCE fans to the games given that WCE AFL did not play this weekend, did many turn up?

Ted Nugent wrote:

The Eagles are shameless. A couple of weeks ago they were not only demanding concessions, but also bagging their top up players, publicly saying they were not good enough and were holding the league players back. Now, after one win, there is an article in the West where the Eagles are praising the top ups and saying "we couldn't have done without them." So, just like that, all is forgiven. Patronising pricks. Basically, if the Eagles get what they want - what they think they deserve - they are all sweetness and light, when things go against them, it's everyone else's fault and the system has to change to accommodate them. 

Even more remarkable TN was some here on ozfooty were saying the Eagles should get more concessions as well 
As I pointed out when they get players back from in jury they will be dominate at WAFL level again and even just gaining Shuey back proved so.
Let us all not forget in the last few weeks they have also picked up West (WP) & Collins (SD) in the mid season draft, ex afl  high draft pick at Carlton & GCS Jarrod Garlett & Sears (SD) & Sumich (SF) from other WAFL clubs on top of having available some of the best players in the country from their afl list at any given time!

Bazz, a lot of Blue and gold at the game, many in the outer and the EP side of the stand was half full. Our bar was packed at halftime, again plenty of Blue and gold in there, we almost ran out of chardonnay!!!!

BH, while the AFL guys like Shuey, Hutchings, AhChee, Vardy, Bailey Williams, Brander, West, Ainsworth, Witherden, Brashaw etc played very well, many of their non listed players contributed, I think a lot was due to having that elite leadership provided by Shuey and Co gave these guys confidence to take us on and for once, play to win the game. I think if Shuey was playing tiddlywinks with a 5 year old he would try fanatically to win.

Stand the Test wrote:

Knowing how subi always let the WAFL down when it counts and wet themselves against strong aligned sides I had a little bit on the west coke eagles. Cheers oob.

Nice testies, don’t you mean meth coke or is it now meth dope 🦅 ?

I wonder how much STT lost on that monty of a life time PFC wager of his though DD? Surely the fella invested a few lazy K on Perth giving EF a hiding last weekend?.....I guess what ever the Lord giveth STT in one hand, he taketh from his other hand.....no doubt Jesus wept as he saw his old man do this to STT.