Glen Quartermain: West Coast Eagles back skills, stem turnovers, and finally snap drought with win over Roos

There was something old. Jamie Cripps and Elliot Yeo. Something new. Willem Duursma and Cooper Duff-Tytler. Something borrowed. Liam Baker and Jack Graham. And a sea of gold and blue. On a day the temperature passed 30C and the home team used their dressing room for refuge at the quarter and three-quarter-time breaks, West Coast saw off a hot North Melbourne, which exploded with seven goals in the first term, raised them eight in the third and then survived a late fightback. A game marked by momentum swings, frenetic early pace, injuries and a wild three quarter time melee after North Melbourne’s Charlie Comben caught Harley Reid high, was above all else a high water mark in coach Andrew McQualter’s rein. The coach will walk away relieved with a 17-point win after a wobbly opening term when North Melbourne scored 5.1 to 1.1 from turnover. Luke Davies-Uniacke was dominating at the source and Harry Sheezel finding space and threatening the Eagles with a death by a thousand kicks - with Nick Larkey kicking four of the Roos seven goals. It looked so desperate for West Coast when defender Harry Edwards was forced from the ground with another concussion issue that Jake Waterman was sent back as a spare man in the backline. The only joy for the Eagles in that opening stanza were career-first goals from Duursma and Duff-Tytler. McQualter told Channel Seven at quarter-time message was for the players to back their skills and stem the turnovers. It worked. The game flipped. After Cameron Zurhaar opened the second quarter with a goal for the Roos, the Eagles kicked four of the next five and it was game on. Reid was having an impact, along with mature-age second gamer Milan Murdock, as the game lived in the Eagles forward 50. In contrast to the first quarter, the Roos recorded only three disposals in their forward 50 in the second term. Archer Reid, Duff-Tytler and Jake Waterman presented confident targets and the smalls got to work, Cripps swooping in for two goals for the term. The Eagles trailed the contested possession count by five at quarter time but by the long break were five ahead, such was the turnaround. And then it was their turn to feast on turnover, scoring 3.3 to the Roos 0.0 in that metric in the second. But the Eagles waited til the third to fire their biggest shots, when they kicked eight goals. When Yeo nailed his second for the quarter after winning a head high free kick on a tight angle on the three-quarter time siren, the Eagles remarkably led by five goals. And cuue the melee. Yeo’s third quarter was a reminder of his worth – six disposals, five contested, 244 metres gained and two goals. But the Roos were not finished, kicking the first three of the final term, two to dead-eye Larkey to give him six for the game. But the Eagles got over the line, handing nine players - Archer Reid, Tom McCarthy, Jobe Shanahan, Hamish Davis, Bo Allan, Jacob Newton, Duff-Tytler, Duursma and Milan Murdock their first win at AFL level. It was the Eagles’ first win since round 10 last season, ending a run of 14 successive defeats. Harley Reid’s 29 disposals were telling, Murdock’s second game as important as his first, two goals backed up by 10 tackles. There will be more dips in the road ahead for this young Eagles group, but last night they didn’t care. They had a W, four points and belief.