WEST COAST 6.3 10.6 12.9 17.11 (113)
ESSENDON 3.2 4.4 9.7 16.7 (103)

GOALS
West Coast: McKinley 7, Wirrpanda 3, Selwood 2, Lynch, Braun, LeCras, Davis, Fletcher.
Essendon: Lloyd 3, Laycock 3, Jetta 2, Slattery, Monfries, Hille, Ramanauskas, Dyson, Dempsey, Lovett, McPhee.

BEST
West Coast: Lynch, McKinley, Braun, Selwood, Cox, Fletcher, Davis. Essendon: Lovett, Watson, Dempsey, Lloyd, Welsh.

INJURIES
Nil.

UMPIRES
Nicholls, Wenn, Keating

CROWD
35,288 at Subiaco Oval.

IT WAS a moment for an old warrior to savour. Just over 18 minutes into a pulsating last quarter at Subiaco Oval, Michael Braun faced a wall of Essendon players with a hard ball to win and a match on the line.

His team had dominated Essendon for three-and-a-half quarters, and yet the Bombers were within three kicks and had just kicked the last two goals to make a win that would keep their season alive possible.

Braun needed a steely nerve, and probably younger legs than the 30-year-old ones that were carrying him. Nerve alone was enough. As he ran at the ball and the Bombers, and they in turn ran at him, Braun refused to move off the line of the ball.

At the last second, the Essendon players yielded, parting like a red and back sea in front of Moses. Braun took two bounces and kicked one of the greatest goals of his 226-game AFL career.

West Coast went on to win 17.11 (113) to 16.7 (103), ending Essendon's slim finals hopes. The Bombers would come again but they would never get close enough to steal this match. And theft it would have been too, because one of the great unanswered questions of the match was just how they got as close as they did.

For almost half a game the Eagles had not only been the better team, they had been the only one that had come to play. An indication of how richly they deserved this win was that six of the best eight players on the ground were probably Eagles — Quinten Lynch providing some more evidence that he might yet be a midfielder in a key forward's body, Braun shining with 29 touches, Ben McKinley kicking seven superb goals and Chad Fletcher, Dean Cox, and Adam Selwood all playing pivotal roles.

The Bombers had plenty of contributors after half-time, most notably Andrew Lovett and Jobe Watson, but precious few before.

Several scoring opportunities at either end of the ground told a revealing tale of the teams' states of mind in the first quarter.

First, Jason Laycock strolled nonchalantly after a chest mark in the goal square and butchered what should surely have been a certain goal.

At the other end, no Essendon player was there to back up when Mal Michael was brilliantly shepherded away by Lynch from a McKinley shot that died in the air and crossed the line at ankle height.

By quarter-time, David Wirrpanda had kicked two goals and could easily have kicked five; young forward McKinley had two and the Bombers could neither handle the strong easterly blowing down the middle of Subiaco Oval, or the Eagles' impressive work rate. West Coast had built a 19-point lead working into the breeze.

The Eagles' endeavour and Essendon's apathy continued well into the second term. By the time the Bombers were at least clearly trying to shake off the cobwebs, they were six goals behind. It all started around the middle where Cox was giving the Essendon ruckmen David Hille and Laycock a frightful touch up.

Essendon cut a 39-point half-time lead to 20 points in the third quarter as Matthew Lloyd lifted for two goals and Hille, Laycock and Angus Monfries added singles.

West Coast managed only two goals for the quarter but they were important — Mark LeCras kicked his first and McKinley added his fifth back to back to break up what could have been a damaging run on.

The last quarter was an epic as the teams traded goals and momentum. The Bombers launched three comeback attempts, played their best football of the match and kicked seven goals. They got as close as close as 10 points, but they never got closer.

The Eagles' fourth win of the year was their best by a considerable margin.