Kangaroos v Eagles, snippets

TURNING POINT: West Coast appeared to be cruising towards its second victory for the year after a Brent Staker toe-poke from the goal square two minutes into the third term put it up by 21 points. However, North Melbourne slammed on the next five goals of the match and, despite drawing level in the final quarter, the Eagles weren’t able to grab the lead again.

STAR MAN: Dean Cox. There hasn’t been an adjective conceived of yet that can adequately describe this modern day marvel. Playing with a broken bone in his foot, the West Coast big man taught his direct opponent Hamish McIntosh a thing or two about ruck work as he floated around the ground to collect 24 touches and 30 hitouts - outstanding.

CLASSIC GRAB: Lindsay Thomas leapt high above the ground and on to the shoulders of team-mate Corey Jones and Eagles youngster Will Schofield to rein in a classic 35m out from goal at the nine-minute mark of the final term. However, he could only manage a minor score from the set shot.

WHAT A GOAL! At the 19-minute mark of the second quarter, West Coast key forward Josh Kennedy picked up the crumbs from a pack that he was just involved in, contorted his body ingeniously to evade a would-be tackler in Kangaroo Ed Lower and, while moving away from goal, snapped around his body from 35m out to register a corker.

ABSOLUTE SHOCKER: They may be easy targets at times but the umpires made a meal of their pocket books tonight. Kangaroos champion Brent Harvey had his name taken down for an extremely minor incident involving West Coast’s Matt Priddis (the adjudicating umpire alleged Harvey committed a tripping offence) while Eagle Matt Rosa didn’t draw any attention from the men in white - or red in this case - for whacking Matt Campbell across the chops in another incident.

UNSUNG HERO: Daniel Wells limped off the ground five minutes into the match with what appeared to be a serious injury to his right knee. However, the star Kangaroo strapped it up, got back on the ground, played out the remainder of the match and kicked a crucial goal on the run from 50m out at the four-minute mark of the last quarter to give his side an 11-point lead and some breathing space in what was an extremely tight encounter.