Geelong did enough without entirely convincing in a fighting 24-point AFL victory over West Coast at Subiaco Oval on Saturday night.

The Eagles led by six points when Nic Naitanui kicked a typically freakish goal in the opening seconds of the third term.

But the Cats gradually wore down their opponents to post the 18.14 (122) to 14.14 (98) win, lifting them one game clear on top of the table ahead of next week's clash with Essendon.

The Eagles put in a brave effort but in the end lacked the class to match it with Geelong for all four quarters despite the best efforts of Beau Waters (33 possessions), Josh Kennedy (three goals), Ben McKinley (three goals) and Matt Priddis.

Midfielder Adam Selwood, who performed an excellent shut-down job on Gary Ablett in the first half, injured his shoulder after copping a ferocious hip-and-shoulder from Corey Enright.

Enright could come under scrutiny from the match review panel for the bump while Cameron Mooney had little impact in the game after rolling his left ankle in the first half.

Geelong were well led by Paul Chapman (36 touches), David Wojcinski, Jimmy Bartel, Harry Taylor and Shannon Byrnes (four goals), but forward Cameron Mooney had little impact after rolling his ankle in the first half.

Two years ago Cats coach Mark Thompson munched on a roll as his team demolished West Coast to the tune of 135 points in Perth.

But there was no sandwich in sight in the first half as the Eagles went blow for blow with the defending champions.

The Cats, minus Max Rooke, Cameron Ling, Matthew Scarlett, Tom Hawkins, Brad Ottens and Joel Corey, were smashed 14-1 in the clearances in the opening term but still took a one-point lead into quarter time.

Geelong's record run of winning quarters was brought to an end on 21, with West Coast winning the second term by a point courtesy of a banana goal to Brad Ebert just 11 seconds before half-time.

Naitanui brought the 33,784 fans to life early in the third with a 40m goal on the run, but excitement levels reached new heights via his pack mark in the square 15 minutes later.

Geelong booted four of the final five goals of the third quarter to take a 16-point lead into the final change, but goals to LeCras and Kennedy to start the fourth cut the margin back to four points.

McKinley had the chance to put the Eagles ahead at the eight-minute mark of the last term but his missed snap proved costly, with the Cats booting the next three goals to seal it.

Sharks coach Ricky Stuart called for Gallen, Barrett and prop Kade Snowden to be included in the NSW Origin team for the second game of the series.

Veteran Barrett, who said he was a couple of weeks away from deciding whether to play again next season, had his fingers crossed.

"If it is going to be my last year and I will decide after the Origin whether I'm in it or not, I'd like to finish as the NSW five-eighth, that would be a big thing for me," Barrett said.

Gallen was more circumspect about his chances.

"I just do my best every week, I'm not reading into it too much, all the media talk, I'll see what happens."

Roosters coach Brian Smith thought his side possibly could have been flat following their efforts on the Gold Coast, but prop Jason Ryles refused to use that as an excuse.

"Blaming the short turnaround and blaming preparation and all that is just crap, it's just our blokes and myself, we just didn't turn up," Ryles said.

Smith said he would be looking for some answers from his team on Monday as they try to break the win-loss cycle of erratic performances.

"We were sloppy and lazy and didn't take the chances that we did eventually create in the game," Smith said.

Stuart rated the Sharks' performance as their most complete of the season.

"We were a footy team tonight," Stuart said.

Asked about his try, Gardner said he had only been focusing on catching the ball.

"I wasn't running all that way and not scoring a try, so I just headed straight for that corner," Gardner said.

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