West Coast enter grand final
West Coast will meet Hawthorn in next weekâs AFL premiership decider after overcoming an early scare to beat North Melbourne.
PT1M30S 620 349WEST COAST 0.2 3.8 8.14 10.20 (80) NORTH MELBOURNE 3.4 4.7 5.11 7.13 (55)
Goals: West Coast: J Kennedy 2, L Shuey 2, D Sheed, J Darling, J Hill, M LeCras, M Priddis, S Wellingham. North Melbourne: S Higgins 2, B Brown, J Ziebell, K Turner, S Gibson, T Garner.
BEST: West Coast: S Wellingham, J Kennedy, M Priddis, M LeCras, J McGovern, B Sheppard. North Melbourne: A Swallow, B Harvey, N Dal Santo, t Goldstein, S Wright, B Jacobs.
Umpires: Simon Meredith, Ray Chamberlain, Dean Margetts.
Official Crowd: 43,080 at Domain Stadium.more
The AFL's master coach, Alastair Clarkson, will do battle with his apprentice, Adam Simpson, in the grand final next Saturday.
Callum Sinclair of the Eagles and Todd Goldstein of the Kangaroos contest a boundary throw-in. Photo: Getty Images
Simpson led West Coast to their first premiership play-off since 2006 after they beat North Melbourne by 25 points in their preliminary final at Domain Stadium on Saturday night.
It's just his second season in charge of the Eagles, having spent the previous four seasons at the Hawks working under Clarkson.
All he wanted to do this season was improve on last season's ninth placing. It's fair to say they have eclipsed that.
No quarter given: Nic Naitanui of the Eagles and Scott Thompson of the Kangaroos wrestle near the boundary line. Photo: Getty Images
The Eagles did look shaky early on Saturday night though, failing to score a goal in the opening term. And if they repeat that against the Hawks next week, they might not be able to get back into the contest like they did against the Roos.
After quarter-time though the intense pressure wasn't there from North Melbourne that they had piled on earlier.
The Eagles were able to settle down and from that point they dominated scoring. After quarter-time the Eagles kicked 10.18 to North Melbourne's 4.9.
Jack Ziebell of the Kangaroos fends off Luke Shuey of the Eagles. Photo: Getty Images
Shaun Higgins kicked two of the Roos' second-half goals, while Jarrad Waite, Ben Brown and Drew Petrie had little impact. The latter may have a late start to season 2016 after he was involved in a behind the play incident with Will Schofield in the final term that ruffled a few of the West Coast players' feathers and may draw the attention of the match review panel.
As the game went on, the Roos struggled to produce the run that earned them a 20-point lead at quarter-time; that would be the biggest lead the Roos would hold.
They carried terrific momentum into the game, looking to be the first team to make it to a grand final from eighth spot since the final eight was introduced in 1994.
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AFL 2nd Preliminary Final - West Coast v North Melbourne
West Coast defeated North Melbourne and are in Grand Final Photo: Getty Images
The Kangaroos' fourth spot is still the best finish a side starting post home and away fixtures has managed though, beating the sixth placing that seven eighth-placed sides had made it to before them. In the early stages of the game evergreen Roo Brent Harvey was left to run free and he made the Eagles pay, with plenty of touches and three inside 50s.
North kicked all of their three first-term goals from marks taken inside their attacking 50.
Neither side really settled in the opening term and it was 17 minutes into the game before the first goal was scored; when Nick Dal Santo, playing in his 300th game found Sam Gibson 40 metres from goal.
The Roos had the first four shots on the goal and could easily have led by more than five goals at the first break.
The Kangaroos started with great intensity, clearly winning the battle for the contested ball.
Harvey was awarded the first goal of the game after 10 minutes, but just before the umpire was about to restart play in the middle of the ground, the TV umpire reversed the score, judging that Matt Priddis had gotten a finger on it.
Waite then missed a set shot from 35 metres just before the quarter-time siren.
West Coast didn't help their cause by disposing at just 55 per cent efficiency in the term.
That improved dramatically at the start of the second term and with the better use of the ball came scoring opportunities for the Eagles.
Their goalscorers started to get a hand on the ball.
And while Mark LeCras, Jamie Cripps and Jack Darling missed their attempts, Coleman medallist Josh Kennedy didn't.
He took three marks, had six possessions and kicked 2.1 in the second quarter and was a massive reason why the Eagles were able to cut the margin back to five points at half-time.
And he's also a key to them beating Hawthorn next week.
Luke Shuey, who was being well held (often literally) by Kangaroos tagger Ben Jacobs, gave his side the momentum going into the main break when he was awarded a free kick straight in front of goals.
But while Waite missed his shot just before quarter-time, Shuey convert his opportunity as the siren sounded.
It was just Shuey's fifth possession, while Chris Masten was also held to six for the half and Andrew Gaff eight.
Their drive came from Sharrod Wellingham, who had 14 possessions at the same time.
When he got himself onto the end of a string of handballs from Masten and Matt Priddis 11 minutes into the third term and kicked a rare goal, he also gave the Eagles the lead for the second time– but this time they didn't give it away.
The Eagles head to the MCG next week for just the second time this season (they beat Richmond by 20 points in round 12). The Hawks have played there 10 times, for seven victories.
