AFLW: Former Carey Park ruck Beth Schilling makes West Coast Eagles debut as Dana East stars on dirty day

She was forced to wait almost a full season, but former Carey Park ruck Beth Schilling has finally been given her blue and gold wings. The Bunbury product featured for the first time ever in West Coast Eagles colours in the club’s Optus Stadium home game against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday. Schilling’s debut came nine rounds into the AFLW season, a week after senior coach Michael Prior admitted some Eagles would be playing for their careers in the final fortnight of their campaign. It was a tough opening for the 18-year-old, as her Eagles were humbled by the Bulldogs — losing 10.8 (68) to 1.2 (8) — in their only game at WA’s home of football for the season. Schilling, who played mostly as a ruck during her country football stint with the Panthers, has been transformed into an intercept defender by the Eagles and had seven disposals, four of which were intercepts, and three tackles in the heavy defeat. After the defeat, Prior was impressed with some of the young defender’s work and said the Eagles “might have found a player”. “We got another debutant in Beth Schilling, the five of our draftees all played this year which is fantastic,” he said. “I wasn’t disappointed with her performance at all, I thought she showed a bit. “She defended hard when she had to.” The Eagles now head back to Victoria for the first time since their marathon run of games in Melbourne at the start of the season and are set to face North Melbourne at Arden Street on Saturday. Meanwhile, Dana East was spared any drama, dodging Fremantle’s COVID-19 scare on Saturday morning, and starred for the Dockers with 18 disposals and seven tackles against Melbourne. But it was an otherwise dirty day for the Dockers, who became the first club in AFLW history to concede 100 points. The 88-point drubbing means wont keep them from playing finals, but will mean they miss out on a double chance.