West Coast’s season from hell has taken another turn for the worse after Jack Darling and Jamaine Jones were injured in a 70-point thumping at the hands of Gold Coast at Optus Stadium.
The Suns piled on eight goals to one in a dominant second quarter on the way to posting the 16.17 (113) to 6.7 (43) win in front of a dejected crowd of 36,219 in a Friday night fizzer.
Damningly, West Coast lost the contested possession tally 43-16 in the second term in one of the most insipid quarters in the club’s history.
It allowed Gold Coast to build a 50-point lead by halftime.
Adding to West Coast’s woes, Jones was subbed out at halftime with a broken nose, while out-of-form forward Darling injured his left arm in the third quarter.
It means the Eagles’ injury list now stands at 18 players.
Darling tried to play on through the injury, but he winced in pain whenever his arm copped a knock and struggled to make an impact.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson isn’t sure whether Darling’s arm is broken or not.
“We’ll get an X-ray and see how it is,” Simpson said.
“He didn’t want to come off. I know he cops a lot (of criticism from fans), and sometimes when you’re out of form that’s what it is.
“But he loves this club, and he loves his teammates.”
The premiership forward finished the match with just 0.1, five marks and seven disposals.
In contrast, his direct opponent Charlie Ballard was one of the most dominant figures on the field with 11 marks – eight of which were contested.
Ballard’s tally of 10 intercept marks was an equal AFL record.
“He just kept marking it, didn’t he?” Suns coach Stuart Dew said.
“And different times a couple of spoils … we love when he plays like that, that really inspires the boys.”
Suns midfielder Matt Rowell continued his pre-match tradition by munching on a piece of the stadium’s turf.
He then got to work by destroying West Coast’s midfield on the way to 29 possessions, six clearances, one goal and a remarkable 17 tackles.
Jarrod Witts (48 hitouts) was a monster in the ruck, while spearhead Ben King booted four goals.
West Coast’s record for the year stands at 1-8, putting them in major danger of collecting the wooden spoon.
The Eagles have now won just three of their past 35 matches.
West Coast’s defence fought valiantly to hold the fort in an opening quarter in which the Suns won the inside 50m count 18-6.
The Eagles scored 2.3 from their six entries, and they would have gone into quartertime with a shock lead if it wasn’t for a clever fend-off and snap from Mabior Chol with just 20 seconds remaining.
The second quarter was pure and simply an embarrassment for West Coast as Gold Coast finally cashed in on their dominance.
The Suns won the clearances 14-3 for the term and the inside 50m count 17-5 on the way to booting 8.5 to West Coast’s 1.2.
King kicked three goals for the quarter – including two in the space of a minute to break the game open – while Rowell continued to terrorise in the midfield.
Whatever Eagles coach Adam Simpson said at halftime seemed to work as West Coast came out firing in the third quarter with two quick goals.
Gold Coast didn’t boot a goal for the term, but they came home strongly in the fourth to get an important percentage-boosting win.
The Suns’ third win from their past four games improved their record to 4-5 ahead of next week’s crunch clash with Brisbane at the Gabba.
© AAP 2023
