West Coast Eagles handed 128-point thrashing in embarrassing home loss to Sydney Swans

Reality checks don’t come much bigger than what just happened to West Coast.

All of the optimism, all of the hope and all of the hype evaporated as Sydney handed them a savage reminder that there is an enormous difference between playing North Melbourne and Port Adelaide compared to facing a genuine premiership contender.

Sydney won 24.19 (163) to 4.11 (35) after kicking the first 11 goals and Isaac Heeney totally destroyed West Coast with 26 disposals and four goals. The Swans led by 100 points during the third term before handing West Coast’s their fifth-largest loss as well as their worst defeat at Optus Stadium and the biggest loss suffered under coach Andrew McQualter.

Sydney kicked the highest score by any team this season. and it was the Swans’ highest score since belting West Coast by 171 points in 2023.

The Swans hadn’t played since March 19 but they certainly weren’t rusty. The Eagles played two games during that time and Sydney spent their time off studying.

Coach Dean Cox would have told his players that the Eagles are poor starters. West Coast were 38 points down against Gold Coast in round one, trailed by five goals against North Melbourne in round two and gave Port Adelaide a 29-point head start last week.

He’d have demanded a quick start. He got that

Sydney knew the Eagles responded in previous games by throwing a loose man into defence and that Jobe Shanahan was the most likely player to do that job.

That happened again, but the Swans found their way through.

They knew Harley Reid was the biggest threat in the midfield and that life is much harder for him whenever Elliot Yeo isn’t in the team.

James Jordan tagged Reid and kept him to 17 disposals. Reid’s frustrations were clear as he gave away multiple free kicks and a 50m penalty.

Sydney knew the Eagles have been belted by star ruckmen this season. They lost the hit outs 53-24 against Jarrod Witts at Gold Coast and it was 54-27 against Tristan Xerri at North Melbourne.

Brodie Grundy feasted on the Eagles with 28 disposals, nine clearances, one goal and 33 hit outs.

Sydney also knew while West Coast have been exciting, they are also young. Incredibly young.

In fact, the youngest 10 players in the game were from West Coast Willem Duursma, Cooper Duff-Tytler, Josh Lindsay, Jobe Shanahan, Hamish Davis, Malakai Champion, Harley Reid, Bo Allan, Archer Reid and Reuben Ginbey were all 21 or under. Angus Sheldrick was Sydney’s youngest player and he’s 22.

If Sydney could really get on top, this West Coast team lacked the leaders needed to recover.

So the path to victory was clear and Sydney followed the playbook to perfection.

They kicked the first goal after only 36 seconds. When Charlie Curnow kicked their second major just four minutes later, the Swans had already taken four marks inside 50 while the Eagles had managed only four possessions. It was ominous.

The Eagles took more than five minutes to have a disposal in their forward half.

West Coast’s heads were spinning as goals continues. Jake Lloyd, Joel Amartey and Jai Serong piled on the pain.

Sydney were dominating the clearances and that had the Eagles under intense pressure. Everyone knew what was coming next. West Coast threw Shanahan into defence.

That stopped Sydney from getting through for a little while, but West Coast lacked a target inside 50 too.

And the moment Shanahan couldn’t get to a contest, Heeney nailed a goal. Heeney was running wild. He had 10 disposals, four clearances and one goal for the quarter.

Harley Reid couldn’t get near it. He had only two touches in the first term.

West Coast had more inside 50s than Sydney but were down 13-7 in clearances and trailed by 33 points at quarter time.

The Eagles recovered from poor starts against the Roos and Power with impressive second quarters so Sydney had to counter that part of the playbook too.

Tom Papley kicked the first goal of the term after two minutes and Sydney stormed to a 63-point lead before West Coast finally got on the board through Jake Waterman.

The problem was Matt Flynn instantly conceded a free kick to Grundy at the re-start, Reid gave away a 50m penalty for not giving the ball back and the Swans replied.

When Heeney kicked his second goal after the half-time siren, the Swans led by 63 points again. Heeney had 18 disposals, two goals and four clearances at that stage.

West Coast have suffered some frightful thrashings in recent seasons so now thh challenge was to show they could salvage something. They couldn’t. Itgot worse and worse.

McQualter looked to the future. Duff-Tytler became the ruckman while Duursma and Allan went into the middle too.

Duursma was easily the biggest highlight for West Coast. But Sydney just kept piling on the goals. This was a football lesson.