WEST COAST 3.2 Â 9.4 Â 13.7 Â 16.8 (104)
NORTH MELBOURNE 2.1 Â 6.4 Â 8.4 Â 11.6 (72)
Goals: West Coast: J Kennedy 4 J Cripps 3 M LeCras 2 A Gaff C Masten E Yeo J Darling P McGinnity S Hurn S Lycett. North Melbourne: B Brown 4 L Thomas 2 J Anderson M Wood S Gibson T Dumont T Goldstein.
Umpires: Robert Findlay, Craig Fleer, Nick Brown.
Official Crowd: 35,618 at Domain Stadium.
Last week Adam Simpson celebrated the 1996 premiership victory with his North Melbourne teammates.
But at Domain Stadium on Sunday afternoon, as West Coast coach, he may have masterminded the end of his former club's chances of adding the 2016 premiership cup to their trophy cabinet.
Not that the Roos did themselves any favours in the 32-point loss.
After leading by just one goal late in the second term, the Eagles were able to extend that lead to 33 points by three-quarter-time, with four of their 13 goals to that point assisted by 50m penalties given away by Roos players. And for careless indiscretions, such as not giving the ball back to an opponent on the full, running into a protective area and taking a player to ground 50 metres behind play.
There were no reports from the game, but expect some announcements from the match review panel early this week, with players from both teams deserving to be a bit nervous.
In fairness, Brad Scott's side had been on the slide for a long time before Sunday's 16.8 (104) to 11.6 (72) loss.
Since round nine, they have won only one game (against Richmond in round 11), but five losses, to Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn, Adelaide and now the Eagles, have seen the early season pace-setter slip from top of the table to eighth. They were on top after round 12.
With a long list of injuries to experienced and key players, the task of getting their season back on track was made even more difficult on Sunday by injuries to Farren Ray (hamstring, in the second term) and Mason Wood (knee, just before the final break).
On the flip-side, the Eagles' victory has catapulted them to fifth spot on the ladder, and just a game out of second.
Last year's runners-up are legitimately back in the premiership frame.
The win over the Roos was their third on the trot and, significantly, their first this season against a side in the top eight. With games against Carlton (MCG) and Melbourne (Domain Stadium) in the next two weeks, West Coast are back in a strong position to push for a top-four finish.
The run from the Eagles on Sunday came from the usual suspects, Matt Priddis, Luke Shuey, Chris Masten and Andrew Gaff.
Jeremy McGovern has become their dominant defender and was again outstanding against North Melbourne, alongside strong performer Sharrod Wellingham, Shannon Hurn and Brad Sheppard.
North kicked five goals after half-time but two of those, both from the boot of Lindsay Thomas, came after the sting had gone out of the game.
Two of them came from the boot of Ben Brown, who was easily the Roos' best forward. He kicked four and finished with 14 touches also.
At the 31-minute mark of the second term on Sunday, the Kangaroos trailed by just six points, after Brown marked and kicked his second goal for the term.
However, the Eagles kicked two goals of their own before the half-time siren sounded and the first three after the break, after just 10 minutes, to blow the margin out to 36 points.
The signs weren't great for the Roos early. Although Todd Goldstein collected 22 hit-outs against West Coast's ruck pairing of Scott Lycett and Mitch Brown in the opening term (and 65 for the game), it didn't result in his side getting first use of the ball.
It didn't help that the Roos lost Nick Dal Santo before the game (due to illness) and had to be replaced by debutant Ryan Clarke.
Clarke, taken at No. 31 in last year's AFL draft, enjoyed a solid debut with 21 possessions.
Again, injuries to key players appeared to have left holes that North Melbourne couldn't plug.
The Roos enjoyed a 14-to-five advantage of forward-50 entries in that first term, but they were unable to make the most of it, especially with Jarrad Waite still missing, and Drew Petrie and Thomas kept quiet. They went into the quarter-time break seven points down – 3.2 to 2.1.
By half-time, West Coast had closed the discrepancy in that particular statistic and with it came opportunities to their key forwards.
Josh Kennedy was the biggest beneficiary, kicking 4.4 to draw level with Lance Franklin in front of the Coleman Medal race with 43 goals.
North Melbourne's strong start to the season has afforded them some breathing space, with ninth-placed Port Adelaide still three wins and percentage behind.
And the Roos will hope to start getting some of their experienced players back from injury in the next few weeks.
But with games against improving sides just outside the eight – Port Adelaide and Collingwood – in the next two weeks, they do need to start finding some form before some of those players return and they can begin their preparation for finals football.