You could have been forgiven for thinking opposing coaches John Worsfold and Kevin Sheedy had swapped sides in describing their teams’ record-breaking performances in the AFL game at Blacktown on Sunday.
The former downplayed his surging team’s sizzling start to the season by describing West Coast’s 81-point flogging of Greater Western Sydney as “a tough day at the office”.
The Eagles kicked a club record first quarter score of 11.4, which also equalled their highest score for any quarter, and ultimately cruised to victory 23.12 (150) to 10.9 (69).
The free-scoring Eagles kicked over 20 goals for the third straight game this season despite missing several injured stars and were too slick and potent for the hard-working GWS.
The fledgling Giants made a more modest dent on their record book, notching their biggest game total following 63- and 129-point defeats by Sydney and North Melbourne.
However, an upbeat Sheedy drew solace from the fact the Giants were only outscored 12 goals to eight over the last three quarters and won the last quarter by 13 points in front of 6,875 spectators at the first AFL game at Blacktown International Sports Park.
He predicted they could be a very good team in four weeks once they got some key players back from injury, while Worsfold said the Giants would eventually become an awesome side.
Trying to prise a compliment from Worsfold for his own team’s performance proved almost impossible, the West Coast boss already looking to the mouth-watering home clash with Hawthorn on Saturday.
Asked to assess the game against the Giants, a deadpan Worsfold said “a tough day at the office and we look forward to the pairing for next week’s game against the Hawks”.
Worsfold was pleased with the effort of Mitch Brown and some of the other players who took their opportunity in the absence of several injured stars.
While the Giants were at times bullied by the physically imposing West Coast, five-goal Eagle Luke Shuey recognised they wouldn’t get the same latitude against the far more experienced and potent Hawks.
“We did get away with a lot due to playing an inexperienced team,” Shuey said.
“I think if we would have done some of the things we did today against Hawthorn or Carlton, we probably would have been shown up a bit.”
Sheedy lamented another poor start by his men but said they were still heading in the right direction.
“We worked hard through the game, we gave a lot of free kicks that ended up in goals that hurt us and when we stopped doing that we started playing better,” Sheedy said.
“I thought we were very competitive the last three quarters and that was a great experience for our boys.”
Worsfold reported injuries for Bradd Dalziell (knee) and Daniel Kerr but expected to regain captain Darren Glass and Matt Rosa for the Hawthorn game though he wasn’t sure about Matt Priddis.
Chris Masten and Quinten Lynch each kicked three goals for the Eagles with Masten adding 30 touches, one behind the team-leading Scott Selwood.
Callan Ward tallied 36 and Tom Scully 30 for the Giants with back-up ruckman Jonathan Giles kicking three goals.