Andrew Embley

Collingwood and West Coast have played each other in three Finals over recent years. Each game has been a closely fought affair, including one draw. This was Allan Didak’s 200th game and while most were expecting the Pies to win, the encounter didn’t go entirely to plan.

West Coast has lost only one game of its last 12 and continues to be the surprise package of the 2012 home and away season. The Adelaide Crows have been struggling and faced their worst finish in the club’s history with only seven wins. Rain bucketed down as the game got under way and whilst this was a blessing to a dry and parched Western Australia, it made for slippery, wet conditions at the football.

Keeping their fairytale season on track, the West Coast Eagles moved into fourth position on the Ladder with a decimation of arch rivals Essendon. The Bombers ran out of legs and players as the game wore on in very warm, late winter conditions in Perth.

Australian Rules Football lost one of its legends this week when Allan Jeans passed away. Jeans was the coach who took St Kilda to their only Premiership in over 100 years. It was going to be an emotional game for the Saints and these occasions can make for either inspiring wins or lamentable losses. St Kilda took the bull by the horns and ripped right into the West Coast Eagles in a cracking first quarter.

A sellout crowd of over 40,000 fans packed Patersons Stadium to see the West Coast Eagles take on a determined Geelong Cats. This was a chance for the Eagles to prove that they were real contenders for the Finals even without the in-form Quinten Lynch, who had been suspended for rough contact the week before. Geelong have not lost two games in a row for so long that people have arguments about when that was. The script was supposed to read that the Eagles would put up a valiant fight but go down in the end by five or six goals – but it didn’t go according to the script by a long way.

Always a threat when they travel to Perth, the Western Bulldogs suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the West Coast Eagles in front of 37,000 fanatical fans. Prior to this match, the Eagles’ form had been good with four wins while the 2010 Preliminary Finalists had a return to winning form against Richmond last week after a very patchy start to the season. 

Round 8 marked the thirty-third Western Derby between the Fremantle Dockers and the West Coast Eagles. This game is the showpiece for Western Australian football fans with Fremantle having won the last seven meetings between the two teams. West Coast dominated in the early years winning the first nine games. A near capacity crowd of 40,567 had great expectations of a home team (Eagles) win, but before the ball had been bounced they were in for some disappointing news.

Much has been hoped for from West Coast and Melbourne this year after both teams had disappointing seasons in 2010. For their Round 6 encounter in the west, weather conditions were perfect for football and a close game was tipped.

Perth has been in the grip of a never-ending summer. On a day that should have been pleasantly autumnal, the North Melbourne Kangaroos arrived to face 97 degree heat and a parochial crowd of nearly 36,000. To make matters worse, the Kangaroos' premier ruckman Goldstein came down with a stomach virus before the game leaving the lion’s share of the work up to first gamer Cameron Pederson.

Trent Cotchin (RICH), charging North Melbourne's Sam Wright: assessed as reckless conduct (two points), high impact (three points), and high contact (two points), equaling seven activation points, a Level Four offense, 425 demerits, and a four game suspension. Cotchin and the Richmond Football Club took the case to the Tribunal in an attempt to have the high contact classification dismissed and downgraded.