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Are the West Coast Eagles legitimate premiership contenders, or just flat-track bullies?
lsicari Junior Columnist
A familiar narrative has followed the West Coast Eagles over the past few years. A dominant victory at home has often been neglected by a poor performance on the road, which has led to many labelling the Eagles as 'flat-track bullies', disregarding their hopes to make a serious run at a premiership.
As the midway mark of the 2016 season approaches, West Coast has done little to remove this mantle.
On the heels of a 77-point thrashing of the hapless Gold Coast Suns at Domain Stadium, a worrisome trend is becoming painfully obvious in the Eagles results this season.
Of West Coast's seven wins in 2016, six of them of came against non top-8 sides, in Western Australia- a 64-point win against Brisbane, a 33-point win against Fremantle, a 68-point win against Richmond, a 62-point win against Collingwood, a 103-point win against St Kilda and the aforementioned victory over the Suns.
The Eagles one interstate win came against a middling Port Adelaide side, an unconvincing eight-point triumph.
Now, a positive out of these results, is that West Coast are beating the teams they need to beat. Already this season, we have seen premiership hopefuls Sydney and Geelong drop games to Richmond and Carlton respectively, so at least the Eagles don't play down to the level of their opposition.
When West Coast are wearing the white shorts though, and are playing a top-eight side interstate, things get ugly.
All three of the Eagles' losses this season have been outside of Western Australia and against teams they could easily run into in September. A 46-point loss to Hawthorn at the MCG, 39-point loss to Sydney at the SCG and a 44-point loss to Geelong at Simmonds Stadium are not representative of a serious flag challenger.
Thus, it is easy to see where the 'flat-track bully' association comes from. West Coast has been smashing lower clubs at home, but has struggled mightily against teams of their calibre on the road. This is a trend that needs to be fixed before the finals, as the last game of the season isn't played in Western Australia.
The question of importance for the Eagles, is why can't they replicate their performances away from the friendly confines of Domain Stadium?
Three key indicators of West Coast's success over the past couple of seasons has been their scoring from clearances, efficiency with the football and their celebrated 'web' defence, which opponents have struggled to figure out.
Somewhere on the plane departing from Western Australia though, the Eagles have left these vital elements of their game behind.
Last season, the Eagles were first in the AFL in points from clearances with an average of 41.8 per game. This coincided with the Eagles finishing sixth in the AFL last season in clearances (39.9 per game), sixth in clearances differential (+1.6) and second in centre bounce clearance differential (+1.8).
With a potent midfield, headed by the likes of Matt Priddis and Luke Shuey, and Nic Naitanui providing first ball use, it is no surprise to see West Coast are one of the league's premier clearance teams.
So far in 2016, the Eagles are averaging 38.9 clearances per game, good for sixth in the AFL. Additionally, they have maintained a +1.9 clearance differential, which is also the sixth best mark in the league, which points to how consistent and efficient the Eagles midfield is at getting their forwards first use at the footy.
On the road however, those numbers have suffered a dramatic drop.
Excluding the win against Port Adelaide, as they are not in the same premiership-window class as West Coast, the Eagles are averaging just 33.3 clearances per game away from home this season. For context, that average would place the Eagles as the 16th best clearance team in the AFL this season.
Moreover, West Coast hasn't just been struggling to get clearances, but they're also having trouble stopping their opponents at doing the same thing. In their three away losses, the Eagles have lost the clearance count in each, resulting in an average clearance differential of -10, which is tied for dead last in the AFL with the Brisbane Lions.
A by-product of this is the Eagles are struggling to score on the road. In games played away from Perth, West Coast is 12th in the AFL for points for, compared to 1st in the league in games played at Western Australia. On the other end of the field, the Eagles are 8th in the AFL in points against in games played away from home, and 2nd in that category in games played at Domain Stadium.
West Coast's downfall in the points against category can be attainted to their execution of their web on the road.
Instead of defending man-on-man, the Eagles defenders guard different sections of the field instead, combining for a web, a trap that teams have consistently fallen into.
When West Coast isn't playing on the enlarged field of Domain Stadium though, the web has been more representative of Swiss cheese, as holes have opened up immensely.
Teams managed to kick just 10.4 goals per game against the Eagles last season. In the three away losses this season though, West Coast has given up 14.6 goals per game on average.
It's tough to pinpoint why the web hasn't worked for the Eagles away from home this season. A fair assumption can be made however, that the structure is predicated on the size of Domain Stadium, which stretches 175 meters by 122 meters. For comparison, the dimensions of the three away venues where the Eagles have lost this season, the MCG (160 meters x 141 meters), the SCG (155 meters x 136 meters) and Simmons Stadium (170 meters x 117 meters), are all considerably smaller than Domain.
Could this be a problem that the Eagles coaching staff need to look at? Is the Eagles web only efficient when playing on a ground that is as large as Domain Stadium? It's a question that could help solves West Coast's defensive woes on the road.
Finally, the Eagles ineffectiveness with the football is another major area of concern away from home.
Now, it must be noted, that West Coast are just 14th in the AFL with an effective disposal rating of 72.1 percent. So, despite their blowout wins, the Eagles' disposal efficiency numbers haven't experienced an inflation.
However, West Coast has been even worse with the football in their three road losses. The Eagles have been wasteful with the footy away from Domain Stadium, where they have an average disposal efficiency rating of 66 percent, a number that would rank them last in the AFL by 4.4 percent.
With the Eagles struggling to win the clearances on the road, it means they're getting less of the footy. Thus, the ability to take advantage when they do have the ball becomes paramount for West Coast, and they have been woeful using the football outside of Domain Stadium.
West Coast will have another chance to channel their road demons, as they face the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium, one of the AFL's toughest tasks.
If the Eagles can knock off the Bulldogs this week, it'll go a long way to remove the 'flat-track bully' label, but until then, we have no evidence to say West Coast are anything but.