A stirring nine-goal final-term revival, led by Andrew McLeod, was not quite enough as Adelaide lost to West Coast at Subiaco on Sunday, 20.15 (135) to 18.9 (117).
The win takes West Coast’s record to 8-5, and while it leaves them in sixth place, it pushes them a game clear of Melbourne and Geelong to solidify its place in the eight.
Adelaide’s loss to West Coast, a week after a similar result against Melbourne at Optus, also leaves the Crows with an 8-5 record.
”We’ve played 13 – we’ve won eight and lost five, so we’re positive in that regard,” Adelaide coach Gary Ayres said. "We’ve probably put in six out of eight quarters of pretty average footy.
“We’ve got a very tight competition – you can’t be off the pace too long because you’ll get gobbled up by all the other teams that are trying to win games to make up the ground, so we probably had a bit of ground made up on a lot of other sides, but now we’re just back a little bit, in the pack.”
West Coast captain Ben Cousins, who turned 24 on match day, was in serious danger of contracting a case of leather poisoning early on, collecting an amazing 16 touches in the first term.
His Adelaide midfield counterpart Andrew McLeod almost matched him with 14 in the last, but it wasn’t enough for the Crows, who couldn’t run down the 40-point lead they had given up by the last break.
Adelaide led until the 26-minute mark of the first term, but three goals in time-on to West Coast, followed by five of the six for the second term game the home team a 40-point break at half-time.
The Crows staged a mini-revival in the third, with three of the first four goals, but West Coast kept plugging away, and the margin at the last break was still 40 points.
A great goal from Brett Burton, his fifth of the match, got the Crows off to the right start in the final quarter, but West Coast answered with a goal to youngster Daniel Kerr just two minutes later.
The Crows’ much-vaunted midfield finally got going in the last, but a six-and-a half goal break at the last turn was just too much to recover and the Eagles kept answering the challenges that Adelaide threw at them.
Adelaide got to just 12 points down with two-and-a-half minutes to go, but rookie Quentin Lynch’s fifth goal sealed the match for West Coast.
WEST COAST: 5-2, 10-7, 15-11, 20-15 (135)
ADELAIDE: 3-2, 4-3, 9-7, 16.9 (117)
GOALS: WEST COAST: Lynch 5, Ph Matera 4, Chambers 3, Cousins 2, Judd, Embley, Cox, Hunter, Kerr, Pe Matera
ADELAIDE: Burton 6, Ricciuto 3, Bode, Nelson, Goodwin, Biglands, Perrie, Bassett, Gallagher, Doughty, McLeod,
BEST: WEST COAST: Cousins, Fletcher, Hunter, Lynch, Jakovich, Chambers
ADELAIDE: McLeod, Burton, Ricciuto, Stenglein, Hart, Goodwin.
INJURIES: WEST COAST: Jones (knee).
ADELAIDE: Nil.
UMPIRES: Sheehan, McLaren, Corcoran
CROWD: 35293 at Subiaco Oval.
