The Western Bulldogs' four-game winning streak has come to an end at the hands of West Coast, with the top-two Eagles claiming a 77-point victory over the Bulldogs Sunday afternoon at Domain Stadium.
The Eagles led by just 16 points at half-time before a piling on 14 goals in the second half, to win 25.12 (162) to 13.7 (85).
The Eagles need to win just one of their last two matches against the Crows in Adelaide and St Kilda at Domain Stadium to host a qualifying final. If they win both, and the Dockers lose one of their final two games, they could claim top spot.
"We're going to try to finish as high as we can," Eagles coach Adam Simpson said post-match.
"I've said that, I reckon, every week for the last 10 weeks.
"If that's top, then fantastic. It's top four now guaranteed, so that was the prize today. I suppose the prize now is top two."
The Bulldogs' top-four hopes took a hit despite a brave first-half performance. They lost seven percentage points to slip to sixth on the ladder ahead of a crucial clash with North Melbourne next Saturday afternoon.
"We're all disappointed with the size of the blow-out," Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said post-match.
"The Eagles are very good. We really kept with them for a fair part of the game, and even early stages of the third quarter we were right in the hunt. It went a little bit adrift late in the game. It would have been nice to have kept it a little bit tighter than that.
"(Next week) going to be another big game. The Kangaroos beat Freo by a narrow margin, and we'll need to be at our best to beat them."
It was electric football from start to finish, but the Eagles' dominance in the midfield was the difference. They had 13 more clearances, 33 more contested possessions and nine more inside 50s.
Nic Naitanui was influential on his return after missing two weeks due to the death of his mother. He provided silver service to his midfielders with 48 hit-outs, 16 to advantage.
Josh Kennedy had the measure of the Bulldogs' defence with seven goals to strengthen his grip on the Coleman Medal. Neither Michael Talia nor Joel Hamling could contain the key forward as he took nine marks inside 50.
But it wasn't just Kennedy that capitalised on the scoreboard, with Josh Hill bagging four and Mark LeCras three as the Eagles had 12 individual goalkickers.
Matt Priddis collected 37 touches and seven clearances, while Andrew Gaff (35 disposals) and Luke Shuey (31) were also prolific.
The Bulldogs were beaten in the midfield but their rebound and dash from half-back was incredibly threatening in the first half.
Jake Stringer was outstanding kicking five goals and Stewart Crameri chimed in with three. Robert Murphy (27 disposals) and Jack Macrae (25) were very damaging by foot and Mitch Wallis was also dangerous with 22 touches and a goal.
But the Eagles had too much quality across the board and they thoroughly dominated the second half. Their defence held up reasonably well with Elliot Yeo playing deep at times in the absence of both Will Schofield and Jeremy McGovern.
Murray Newman celebrated his return to AFL football after serving a six-month jail term last year. He kicked a goal in the last quarter after coming on as the sub.
WEST COAST 5.5 11.9 16.10 25.12 (162)
WESTERN BULLDOGS 3.2 9.5 12.6 13.7 (85)
GOALS
West Coast: Kennedy 7,Hill 4, LeCras 3, Sinclair 2, Hutchings 2, Naitanui, Shuey, Sheed, Cripps, Darling, McGinnity, Newman
Western Bulldogs: Stringer 5, Crameri 3, Dickson 2, Redpath 2, Wallis
BEST
West Coast: Naitanui, Kennedy, Priddis, Gaff, Shuey, Hutchings, Hill
Western Bulldogs: Stringer, Macrae, Wallis, Murphy, Bontempelli, Hunter
INJURIES
West Coast: Nil
Western Bulldogs: Grant (broken nose), Morris (Achilles)
SUBSTITUTES
West Coast: Murray Newman replaced Xavier Ellis during the last quarter
Western Bulldogs: Daniel Pearce replaced Dale Morris at three-quarter time
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Margetts, Dalgleish, Pannell
Official crowd: 37,733 at the Patersons Stadium
