WEST Coast has compounded Melbourne's week from hell, delivering a midfield master-class at Patersons Stadium, beating the Demons by 108 points on Saturday afternoon.
In a powerful display that highlighted their premiership credentials and left the Demons battered and bowed, the Eagles notched their biggest win against Melbourne: 25.16 (166) to 9.4 (58).
After a week of intense pressure on first-year coach Mark Neeld, it was a bitterly disappointing performance from the Demons, who have now lost 25 of their past 29 games on the road.
The Eagles largely did as they pleased and the full power of their deep and talented midfield was on display, with Matt Priddis (30 disposals and eight clearances), Scott Selwood (34 and three goals) and Andrew Gaff (33 and six inside 50s) superb.
They won the clearances (43-36), contested possessions (159-128) and inside 50s (78-32), and all largely without Norm Smith medallist Andrew Embley, who was subbed out of the match after injuring his left shoulder late in the first quarter.
The free-kick count was a lopsided 32-12 West Coast's way, but Melbourne had bigger worries on the stats sheet. Perhaps most damning for the Demons, they let West Coast monopolise the football and were still out-tackled 69-41.
Neeld was left praising his opponents on Saturday night, declaring that the experience of playing against such a "slick" side would be an educational tool for his players.
"The Eagles are very professional outfit ... you watch their stoppage work, and their ball movement, it's precision," he said. "That's where we want to get to and it doesn’t happen overnight.
"We don't condone the loss, no one likes to go through that, that's tough yards. But to see a side such as the Eagles up close for a lot of our young players, in the end is going to be a good thing."
With ruckmen Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox dominating in the middle, the Eagles made their first surge in the second quarter, booting seven goals to three to build a 48-point lead at half-time.
From there, it got ugly, with tall Eagles forwards Jack Darling and Quinten Lynch dominating the third term as their team added eight goals to two and entered the last break 90 points clear.
Darling was particularly impressive, taking eight marks and booting four goals, while teammate Josh Kennedy was one of the few Eagles beaten on the day, held to one goal by James Frawley.
Melbourne could count its other contributors on one hand with first-year midfielder James Magner battling hard for 32 possessions and a game-high 10 clearances, and forward Mitch Clark making the most of limited chances to boot five goals.
While Neeld focused on the Eagles' strengths, West Coast coach John Worsfold said it was too early to declare his team had taken another step up after its fourth-place finish in 2011.
He did, however, praise a midfield group that remains young but has developed rapidly in the past two seasons.
"Those names are the same names that were there two or three years ago, aside from Gaff," the coach said.
"(Matt) Rosa is developing into a really seasoned top-line player for us, and Shuey, (Chris) Masten, Scott Selwood, they were in the midfield three years ago as very young players.
"People couldn't see the talent in there, we thought it would come through and it's starting to."
WEST COAST 4.3 11.8 19.14 25.16 (166)
MELBOURNE 1.0 4.2 6.2 9.4 (58)
GOALS
West Coast: Darling 4, Lynch 4, S Selwood 3, Hams 3, Hill 3, Waters 2, Kerr, Naitanui, Shuey, Kennedy, A Selwood, Gaff
Melbourne: Clark 5, Jones 2, Dunn 2
BEST
West Coast: S Selwood, Priddis, Shuey, Darling, Waters, Glass, Lynch, Hurn
Melbourne: Magner, Clark, Frawley, Jones, Rivers, McDonald.
INJURIES
West Coast: Embley (shoulder)
Melbourne: Martin (hip) replaced in selected side by Tom McDonald
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Fila, Leppard, Farmer
Official crowd: 35,674 at Patersons Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs
