West Coast’s premiership hero Dom Sheed steps up to guide Eagles to win over Carlton

The West Australian
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VideoJosh kennedy's superb attack on the ball ended with a Dom Sheed goal.

West Coast again took time to find their mojo, flirting with trouble before rolling home against Carlton for their sixth straight win today.

The Eagles surged back into the top four with the 22-point victory, kicking eight of the last nine goals of the match to get home 11.6 (72) to 7.8 (50) at Optus Stadium.

It came after West Coast had trailed by more than three goals for the third consecutive game, with Perth Demons product Zac Fisher’s lively four-goal cameo instrumental as the Blues brought plenty of attitude and pressure.

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When Fisher kicked his fourth just 20 seconds into the third, the Eagles were 19 points down in a familiar script.

West Coast trailed Geelong by 21 points in the third term last weekend and were 20 points behind Collingwood early in the previous game.

It was a fascinating juncture, with the Eagles also knowing that the Blues squandered a five-goal lead before being completely overrun by Hawthorn in their last outing.

Carlton had kicked four in a row before West Coast answered it with a run of five of their own.

Four of them came in less than four minutes of playing time leading into three-quarter-time, as the Eagles again fell back on trump card Nic Naitanui and their centre-circle control to haul them out of trouble.

West Coast won the centre clearances 4-1 for the quarter and took full toll with quick goals out of the middle resulting to Jamie Cripps and Jack Darling.

There is nothing like quality entries and it was underlined as the Eagles created 17 scoring shots to 15, despite losing the inside-50 count 44-35.

Naitanui wasn’t allowed to have it all his own way, with back-up big man Tom De Koning using his leap to good effect, but the Eagles’ all-star clearance crew again got the job done.

West Coast won the clearances 43-32, with Dom Sheed and Elliot Yeo feasting on 18 between them to repeatedly drive the home side forward.

Sheed was a central figure in a best-on-ground outing, having a season-high 26 touches to go with nine clearances and two goals, both of which came in the final term to shut the door on the plucky Blues.

Key forwards Josh Kennedy and Darling, who showed promising glimpses of his old self, were West Coast’s other multiple goal kickers with two each.

BLUE WITH ANGER

Comedian Dave Hughes wasn’t seeing the funny side after Sam Petrevski-Seton was pinged for a harsh holding the ball after being wrapped up by Darling in the opening term.

Hughes, a Carlton fan, took to Twitter to label umpire Nathan Williamson’s call the “worst decision of the year” and “ridiculously inconsistent”.

IS THIS THE WORST HOLDING-THE-BALL DECISION YET?

Petrevski-Seton didn’t have prior opportunity, but was judged to not have made any attempt to dispose of the ball.

There was no shortage of people lining up to savage the decision, although replays indicated the Carlton player’s arms weren’t completely locked up.

Petrevski-Seton was caught by Cripps to prompt another hot holding-the-ball call in front of goal in the third term. Both times he was punished with a goal.

SHEP SHINES

The last time Brad Sheppard kicked a goal, Sam Mitchell and Matt Priddis were running around in the Eagles midfield and the defender was yet to experience the agony of missing out on a flag.

VideoEagles defender Brad Sheppard kicks his first goal since 2017.

Sheppard, whose last goal came against Port Adelaide in round seven, 2017, ended that drought with a quick snap out of congestion early in the second term.

The goal, the 18th of his career in his 188th game, was as popular as it was rare, judging by the reaction of his teammates.

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