SYDNEY coach Paul Roos assured us that the events of round four, when Barry Hall knocked Eagle Brent Staker into la-la-land and the Swans handed the Eagles a 62-point belting, were long forgotten.

West Coast coaching staff were at pains to tell us that those events — which earned Hall a seven-week suspension, Staker the mother of all headaches and Eagles teammates a royal bagging for not running to remonstrate with Hall — would not be part of their build-up to last night's re-match.

Yeah … right. 13th played fifth at Subiaco Oval, but in the end it was another epic. Sydney had to come from a 36-point half-time deficit to win this one, yet win it the Swans did — 12.11 (83) to 11.12 (78) — hitting the front for the first time in the match at the 32-minute mark of the final term when Jude Bolton kicked his second goal, and the one that gave his team a five-point lead with 80 seconds left in the match.

It was yet another classic between two teams that have played out half-a-dozen rippers since the 2005 qualifying final. But West Coast will consider it larceny on a grand scale after it had dominated the first half and led for all but the last minute or so.

The Swans owed victory to dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes, who lifted mightily after half-time to finish the game with 21 possessions, Nick Malceski, who was good over four quarters, and Brett Kirk, who kicked two third-quarter goals.

For West Coast, defeat was cruellest of all for midfielder Daniel Kerr, who had played his heart out to be his team's best player.

By quarter-time West Coast had outscored Sydney 6.1 to four points. Goodes had had his bells rung by Tyson Stenglein at the first bounce of the game. And when the Swan tried to return the favour five minutes later — by ringing Adam Selwood's bells with a head-high bump — he found himself on report and handed West Coast its third goal.

If you had watched West Coast meander through the past two months like a pack of flat batteries, you would have realised that John Worsfold's team for some reason — whether it be Hall's whack or something else — had suddenly discovered purpose.

And if you watched the usually self-assured warriors of Sydney fumble, bumble and panic their way through the first term, you would have realised this was a team made fully aware that in this game they were to be the hunted.

In Sydney, the Eagles were ambushed, not just by Hall and a fierce Swans midfield, but also by a former little-known assistant of theirs, Mark Stone, who had shifted to the Swans over summer and told them all of West Coast's stoppage secrets. So Dean Cox would tap the ball to a designated spot and find Goodes storming past the stoppage to gather the ball. Not last night.

West Coast clearly won the first three stoppages of the game, all of which netted them goals. Kerr had gathered 12 touches to half-time to Kieren Jack's three. Kerr found plenty of allies. Midfielder Sam Butler was one. Stricken by groin and hamstring problems, Butler hadn't played since the 2006 grand final. Last night, he had 11 touches to the main break. Adam Hunter was another. As late as Wednesday, Hunter, the one Eagle to run at Hall after he decked Staker and who was mocked for going to ground quickly as big Bazza fended him off, was expected to miss another three to four weeks with a knee injury.

By half-time he had taken a mark-of-the-year contender and kicked a goal, as well as being in the thick of several first-quarter skirmishes.

Sydney's only decisive player to the main break had been knee-job phenomenon Malceski, who had gathered 16 possessions and used the ball well from half-back. But Malceski had no allies and plenty of opposition.

Sydney set about its work in a more "Bloods-like" fashion in the third term with Goodes and Kirk lifting the team. The result was four goals to nil the Swans' way for the quarter, a 14-point margin at three-quarter-time and the chance of yet another cliffhanger between the grand finalists of 2005 and 2006.

In the end, the Eagles simply couldn't hold on. They got the first goal of the final term but only two more. Sydney added six.

SYDNEY 0.4 2.7 6.9 12.11 (83)
WEST COAST 6.1 8.7 8.11 11.12 (78)

GOALS Sydney: Kirk 2, McVeigh 2, Bevan 2, Malceski 2, Bolton 2, O'Loughlin, Buchanan. West Coast: Kerr 2, Wirrpanda 2, Staker 2, Lynch, Hunter, Seaby, Selwood, Nicoski.

BEST Sydney: Malceski, J Bolton, Goodes, Kirk, O'Keefe, McVeigh. West Coast: Kerr, Lynch, Cox, Butler, Selwood, Embley.

REPORTS Sydney: Goodes for alleged rough conduct on Selwood (West Coast) in first quarter.

UMPIRES Donlon, Kennedy, Head.

CROWD 38,802 at Subiaco Oval.

THE UPSHOT The Eagles opened with six goals to nil in the first term, led until the final 80 seconds but lost for the ninth time in 11 games. The Swans' great escape keeps them close to the top four.