Eagles keep winning
An off-the-ball incident involving Brownlow medalist Chris Judd took some gloss off another sparkling West Coast performance against an undermanned St Kilda at Subiaco Oval.
West Coast stretched its unbeaten start to the AFL season to eight games 13.10 (88) to 7.10 (52) against a Saints team missing Aaron Hamill, Justin Koschitzke, Robert Harvey, Aussie Jones and Xavier Clarke.
But most of the attention was on Judd, whose hopes of consecutive Brownlows were under serious threat after the 21-year-old subtly directed an elbow into Steven Baker's face early in the second term.
The incident was missed by the umpires but will surely come under scrutiny by the match review committee.
Judd's case wasn't helped when Baker came off the ground minutes later complaining of blurred vision.
In a match labelled a potential grand final preview, West Coast kicked nine goals to two to halftime to set-up a match-winning 43-point lead.
St Kilda continued battling away and managed to win the third and fourth quarters, avoiding what loomed as a blowout much to Eagles coach John Worsfold's chagrin.
But the game lacked intensity in the second half as West Coast recorded a 36-point win.
Michael Gardiner returned from a knee injury and cast aside a fortnight of off-field dramas to kick four goals, while Chad Fletcher (31 possessions, two goals) and Ben Cousins (30 possessions, two goals) were again sensational in the midfield.
Stephen Milne kicked three goals for the Saints.
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