Round 4 – West Coast Eagles v Sydney Swans: West Coast’s balloon well and truly popped

Round 4

West Coast Eagles v Sydney Swans

7.35pm, Easter Saturday 2026

Optus Stadium

By Dan Lonergan

That renowned swagger at West at the West Coast Eagles was a big part of their DNA especially in the 1990s when they played finals every year and won two flags from three grand finals. It was there again in six consecutive finals campaigns between 2002 and 2007 and some epic clashes with Sydney who beat the Eagles in the 2005 Grand Final by four points and then West Coast squeaked over the line by one point the following year to win their third flag.

Since then West Coast have had their moments and again didn’t miss finals between 2015 and 2020, which resulted in another nail biter grand final victory in 2018 going the Eagles’ way against Collingwood. They were also obliterated in 2015 by the three peat Hawks. They are the richest and most resourced club in the competition, but have not played like that since the middle part of 2021 when the Bulldogs smashed them in Perth in front of empty stands due to Covid and from then on they have struggled to win and at times compete.

I was spending a lovely Easter Saturday afternoon in Yea on Saturday with my daughter who was playing in an annual tennis tournament with her boyfriend Jack’s family. Before the footy got underway in Perth, I won one of the raffle prizes, which was a 20 percent off voucher at the Yea Brewery and Cidery and as the owner of this lovely little store in the main drag of Yea said to me when I turned up about 30 minutes later to collect my prize. ‘’Gee Mate! No one has picked up the raffle prize so quickly after winning it.” I said “ I am only here for the day and as much as I love your picturesque town, I may not get here again before the voucher runs out.”

I purchased some beers brewed at a brewery at nearby Alexandra especially a lager which I prefer more than pale ales that I bought for my brother. The lager by the way is a great drop of which I sipped at the bowls club that night with Laura my daughter and Jack’s family as I tried to play lawn bowls for the first time in many years and badly.

I kept an eye on the footy, knowing I would be writing on the Eagles and Swans, which excited me after West Coast won two on a trot and started to look relevant for the first time in years. Sydney was coming off a 16 day break due to these ridiculous byes so early in the season to cater for the Players Association deal with the AFL that there are two byes in longer seasons and teams like Sydney that played in my view that stupid Opening Round and really had to have a rest sometime early in the season. It could be fraught with danger as teams could be flat particularly if their opponents have played the week before.

However, while at the bowls club, Sydney needed not worry about not hitting the ground running as they had blown the Eagles away by half time in Perth leading by 10 goals. The West Coast supporters always loyal had turned out in full force with the crowd at Perth stadium exceeding over 50 thousand, but they would have been shocked as their side experienced one of those beltings that had occurred so often in the past five years including a horrible 171 point drubbing against Sydney in 2023.

The Swans showed they are miles ahead of the young West Coast side, who I reckon took 10 steps back as the Eagles suffered their biggest ever loss at Perth Stadium of 128 points.

As I was driving home to Melbourne with the journey just over 90 minutes for most people except me, who missed the turn off to Melbourne around 30 Ks from Yea and ended up in Seymour putting 15 kilometres more already on the trip and there was a sign indicating 220 Ks to Wodonga and I thought I am going the wrong way and might end up in Sydney in the middle of the night. My youngest brother does live there, so I am sure there would have been a bed for me, but I didn’t plan to go to the Harbour City.

I was listening to the ABC and their Perth commentators, Clint Wheeldon, who is one of the corporation’s main commentators and calls the Grand Final every year, which surprises me. I have nothing against Clint but in my view there are better callers than him in ABC Sport. I think at times he is too West Coast and Fremantle centric and when a team is being pulverized like the Eagles, it should be pretty hard and in fact impossible to hone in on the vanquished and largely ignore the rampaging victors.

It’s also a national coverage going right around Australia so having worked there for 18 years, it was drummed into me to be impartial when calling a game the whole time no matter where you are located and I did spend three years in the West. Mitch Turner was his co caller and he also had that Western Australian feel about him being a local but he is in my mind still learning the caper and is certainly more than capable. The experts were Collingwood premiership and ex Eagle, Sharrod Wellingham and 2000 Brownlow Medallist, Shane Woewodin.

They were virtually speechless and dumb founded in trying to describe what was happening in front of them. While that was happening, driving through the town centre of Seymour, much to my relief I saw the sign to Melbourne, but took a turn just before the Hume Highway and that eventually took me on a dirt road inducing more unnecessary KS and minutes on the clock.

As I got more frustrated, the pain if possible was getting out of hand for the Eagles as the lead extended over 100 points and Clint, who like me was mentored by the incomparable, Glenn Mitchell, who was the best preparer for a sporting event he was about to commentate that I have ever seen. Clint and Mitch, who obviously learnt how to prepare from Clint started waxing lyrical about record margins and even the 171 point disaster was mentioned, but that was still a fair distance away as the last quarter started.

The goals kept coming for the Swans as Heeney and Papley in his 200 th game ran riot. One of the more under rated players to rack up over 250 games, Jake Lloyd also played brilliantly and when the ball entered their defensive 50, which Sharrod and Shane said was very rare, the backline led by former Hawk, Jai Serong was steadfast and Brodie Grundy in career best form monstered Flynn in the ruck.

They were though obviously very complimentary of how superb the Swans were as Clint in particular despaired over the Eagles suffering a pummelling, he and most of us thought was behind them. He and Mitch reeled off the stats and records as the biggest ever loss margin wise was overtaken by this team and they looked at it from a West Coast perspective. In my opinion, they should have also given Sydney more love, who were living up to the hundreds of media, who cover the AFL’s expectations that last year was an aberration for the Swans and they would rise again quickly in 2026 and be back in contention.

Some will say it’s only the Eagles but their previous fortnight when they knocked off North Melbourne at home and they overhauled Port Adelaide after a slow start at the Adelaide Oval to exceed last year’s paltry return of one victory all season had given a large portion of the population in Perth and WA hope that the biggest sporting club on the western seaboard was coming out of it’s malaise, but to play like that and be so dominant was impressive.

It seems there is plenty of work to do but there was as former Carlton Coach, Brendan Bolton used to say one major green shoot, the 2025 number one draft pick, Willem Duursma, who already looks like he belongs in the big time. He booted two of the Eagles four goals. He stood out like a carpet snake in a foul house in a shocking day for his team. Fellow number one selection and house mate, Harley Reid, was well beaten by one of the league’s best taggers in James Jordan as Sydney Coach and Eagles favourite son, Dean Cox was cognizant of the influence Reid had in his side’s two victories.

It’s a feather in Reid’s cap that the Swans need to quell his influence in just his third season, but Harley didn’t handle it well and he needs to learn without losing his wick that players of Jordan’s ilk right throughout his career will be sent to him to restrict his sublime skills on the contest.

Sydney marches on with a percentage of over 180 and have bigger fish to fry, but a win is a win and a percentage booster is a percentage booster. Other than the result and margin, Dean Cox would have been delighted with the spread of goal kickers – 13 including four from boom recruit, Charlie Curnow, which was promising, but he needs to do it more often against better opposition. That was also a criticism of his performances at Carlton even when he claimed the Coleman Medal twice.

For West Coast there is still plenty of work to do and they would no doubt be hoping that display was a one off this year.

By the way for what it’s worth, I eventually found my way onto the Hume and arrived home to Williamstown after more than two hours on the road after enjoying time with my daughter and loving the performance of Sydney.

WEST COAST 0.5 2.8 3.11 4.11 (35)
SYDNEY 6.2 13.5 20.10 24.19 (163)

GOALS
West Coast: Duursma 2, Baker, Waterman
Sydney: Curnow 4, Heeney 4, Lloyd 3, Amartey 2, Papley 2, Warner 2, Blakey, Cunningham, Grundy, Jordon, McInerney, Serong, Wicks

BEST (Dan’s best)
West Coast: Duursma, Hough, Kelly, McCarthy, Shanahan, Graham
Sydney: Heeney, Grundy, Warner, Papley, Serong, Curnow, Jordon, Wicks

INJURIES
West Coast: Nil
Sydney: Nil

LATE CHANGES
West Coast: Nil
Sydney: Malcolm Rosas (calf) replaced in the selected side by Harry Cunningham

Crowd: 50,723 at Optus Stadium