West Coast Eagles collapse to 72-point loss as Marvel curse continues against St Kilda

West Coast suffered a death by a thousand cuts rather than a quick slice and dice in a 72-point loss to St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.

The Eagles return to Perth with an eighth successive defeat in their pockets as well as an match review concern, forward Liam Ryan’s high hit on St Kilda’s Liam Stocker in the second term certain to attract attention.

The weight of numbers told in the end, a 67-37 inside 50 disparity in favour of the home team.

They were also well beaten at the contest with the Eagles clearly missing inside maestro Elliot Yeo, out with soreness, and lacked drive without their co-captain Liam Duggan.

The Saints are not a high-scoring team but it was only a matter of time before the gold and blue dam wall burst with Jack Sinclair and Jack Steele capitalising on another energetic display from ruckman Rowan Marshall.

Tim Membrey was the Saints’ main goalscorer with five, although his opponent Tom Barrass battled manfully against the avalanche that came his way and threw all he had at the contest.

Mason Wood was also damaging but errant with 3.4.

It was an incremental dismantling. The Eagles trailed by nine points at quarter time, 19 at the long break, 34 at the last change and then the trickle became a flood.

At the other end of the field, the youngest team the Eagles have fielded this season struggled to hit the scoreboard in the absence of Jake Waterman, out with a knee injury.

Jack Williams, the nominal replacement for the other Jack, Darling, kicked three, and Oscar Allen two.

But the lack of pressure in their forward 50 was telling and underlined by the tackle count. The Saints laid 23 tackles in their forward 50 to zero for West Coast.

The Eagles don’t return entirely empty-handed.

They got another busy game out of Reuben Ginbey, who has responded well since being shifted to half-back by interim coach Jarrad Schofield and was shifted into the middle for the final term.

Jayden Hunt also looks to have found a rhythm again in defence after returning from a toe injury. He was the leading possession winner on the ground with 35 and 696 metres gained.

Brady Hough’s game on Jack Higgins was also solid.

Just like the last time they played the Saints in round 12, Harley Reid was closely checked.

Jack Steele and Liam Stocker shared the load when he roamed the midfield and Reid responded by turning a hard tag into a hard nag.

Reid is never going to go down meekly and he got in the face of just about every St Kilda player on the ground, with a particular liking for Marshall.

He finished with 19 possessions and while he tries to lift his teammates, he expends a lot of energy in combative mode.

West Australian Bradley Hill brought up game 250 with a win in a week he signed on for another three seasons with the Saints.

But another WA product Liam Henry was subbed out with a knee injury.

SCOREBOARD

ST KILDA 3.3, 7.5, 10.9, 17.11 (113) WEST COAST 2.0, 4.4, 5.5, 6.5 (41)

Goals - St Kilda: T Membrey 5 M Wood 3 C Sharman 2 D Butler 2 D Wilson J Steele M Owens J Higgins J Battle West Coast: J Williams 3 O Allen 2 R Maric

Best - St Kilda: T Membrey J Steele M Wood R Marshall J Sinclair Z Jones West Coast: J Hunt H Reid T Barrass R Ginbey B Hough

Injuries - St Kilda: L Henry (left knee)

Umpires: Chris Donlon Nicholas Brown Paul Rebeschini Harrison Birch Crowd: 18,251 at Marvel Stadium