Grand final hero Dom Sheed has produced the goods again for West Coast who have overcome a third-quarter scare to beat Geelong by 34 points in their AFL pre- season clash at Perth’s Leederville Oval.
The Cats led by seven points late in Friday’s third quarter after booting three- straight goals.
But West Coast kicked the next five – including two to forward Jack Darling – to secure the 15.9 (99) to 8.17 (65) win in front of 6028 fans.
Sheed, who kicked the winning goal against Collingwood in last year’s grand final, finished with 39 disposals, seven clearances and a goal to be best afield.
Darling finished with five goals and 10 marks, while young spearhead Oscar Allen kicked three.
Andrew Gaff tallied 27 disposals in his first match for the Eagles since breaking the jaw of young Docker Angus Brayshaw in round 20 last year.
The Eagles were also able to get valuable game time into Jeremy McGovern (ribs) and Elliot Yeo (toe) after their interrupted pre-seasons.
Geelong forward Tom Hawkins was pulled out before the match, joining Gary Ablett on the sidelines.
Jordan Clark, Geelong’s first pick from November’s national draft, was impressive, finishing with 21 disposals and five marks.
Patrick Dangerfield (29 disposals, one goal) did his best to keep his side in the contest, but Geelong’s inaccuracy proved costly.
Both sides had their first taste of what a zone infringement looked like when Geelong fell foul of the new law in the opening term.
Confusion reigned when West Coast ruckman Tom Hickey was handed a free kick from the centre circle after Geelong had infringed.
Players from both sides weren’t aware they had to return to their original positions, leading to a delay of about 20 seconds.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson checked with officials about the rule at quarter-time to clarify that players definitely needed to go back to their original spot.
West Coast forward Liam Ryan booted two goals in the opening term.
And he could have entered halftime with four majors if it wasn’t for a couple of costly misses – one of which was from 20m in front of goal.
Geelong dominated for large parts of the third quarter, with two goals to Brandan Parfitt helping the visitors to a seven-point lead.
But from there, West Coast took control, with Darling adding another four goals to his tally to help seal the easy win.
© AAP 2019
WEST COAST 4.3 6.6 9.6 15.9 (99)
GEELONG 3.5 4.6 7.13 8.17 (65)
Goals: West Coast: J Darling 5 O Allen 3 L Ryan 2 D Sheed J Cameron J Petruccelle N Vardy W Rioli. Geelong: B Parfitt 3 G Miers J Selwood P Dangerfield Q Narkle Z Guthrie.
Umpires: Jeff Dalgleish, Nathan Williamson, Justin Power.
Official Crowd: 6,028 at Leederville Oval.
