The West Coast Eagles‘ struggles in 2022 have been summed up by a bizarre blunder which saw the team having too many players on the field at once against Port Adelaide.
The incident occurred in the first quarter of Port’s 18. 9. (117) to 4. 9. (33) win at the Adelaide Oval when the play was stopped by an emergency umpire, who awarded a free kick to the Power after noticing the interchange gaffe.
West Coast had planned to sub off four players, as Luke Strnadica, Xavier O’Neill, Luke Foley and Connor West waited to come onto the ground.
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Three Eagles players came off in exchange for the quartet, but Willie Rioli, who was supposed to be the fourth player taken off, lagged behind, leaving West Coast with 19 players on the field for a brief moment.
“He’s paid it with the tracksuit pants on … I’ve never seen it!” said Crows great Mark Ricciuto on Fox Footy’s coverage.
“We saw the free kick get paid to Port Adelaide with three West Coast Eagles players coming off the ground.
“As they come on, one, two and three come on and one, two, three, four go onto the oval.”
“They often run out and make reports, but I’ve never seen this,” Hawthorn great Jason Dunstall added.
“Been a while since we’ve had an interchange infringement.”
The interchange gaffe summed up another forgettable outing for the Eagles, with star midfielder Elliot Yeo failing to finish the contest due to a concussion, rubbing salt into the wound for his embattled side.
It was a welcome result for Port Adelaide, who began the season with five straight losses, but it continued a poor run of form for the veteran Eagles side, which saw a number of big-name players look underdone once again.
The match was effectively settled in the second and third quarters, with Port Adelaide slamming on 11 unanswered goals after Jamie Cripps’ first-quarter opener before Josh Kennedy grabbed West Coast’s second goal of the match in the final term.
“You just run out of things to say in the end,” former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon said on commentary.
“That’s as one sided a belting in a quarter as we’ve seen for a while.”
The frustration was evident, with a fuming Yeo hurling his mouthguard into the Eagles’ bench after coming off, just minutes before he was withdrawn due to a concussion.
“It’s the West Coast midfield not getting it done,” Dunstall said.
“We saw the frustration of Elliot Yeo when he came off the bench, he threw his mouthguard.
“He’s only had the three possessions, he’s struggling to get the ball – Shuey’s in the same boat.
“That must be a tough one for (coach Adam Simpson) to sit through watching his team just make mistake after mistake.”
West Coast’s horror second quarter saw the scoreline reading 53-10 Port’s way at the main break, and it was the third time in six matches that the Eagles failed to score over 12 points in a single half this season.
West Coast’s task gets no easier next week when it hosts Richmond at Perth’s Optus Stadium, while Port Adelaide will travel to Cazalys Stadium in Cairns to face St Kilda.