THE Kangaroos only trailed by two straight kicks midway through the last quarter when Shannon Grant lined up for goal from 50 metres out. It was a challenging distance, but one the pocket player had covered adequately in the past. He went back and kicked a floating, tumbling ball to the goal square that was comfortably marked uncontested by Dean Cox. No score.

It was a bizarre moment. Not for the first time this year Grant inexplicably fluffed his kicking. Normally a gloriously skilful player, he is approaching set-shot kicking like a golfer over a three-metre putt.

Some might suggest the yips.

This was not the moment that turned this game or lost it for the Kangaroos, but it was crucial and exemplified the difficulties they had before goal. The Roos came in bursts in the second and final quarters, dominating play but they did not convert as truly as they needed to.

At times they kicked behinds, occasionally they sprayed them wide. Sometimes they fell short. At other moments they went wisely to the top of the goal square but the opportunities created could not be translated into goals.

Cruelly, at the other end, silliness prevailed.

Cox was able to curl a ball for a goal from the boundary line. Players of his size are expected to eat raw meat and bludgeon the ball, not provide the touch of a flighty teammate.

Ashley Hansen, also in the final quarter, illustrated that as regimented as his side is, it still possessed the capacity for innovation.

From close to the boundary, Hansen stepped around Shannon Watt then shunned the entreaties of his captain Chris Judd, who had led to a promising position. Instead, Hansen put the ball inside out on his right boot and curled a check-side kick on the run through for a goal.

It was wonderfully absurd.

This, in part, explained the difference between two sides that were ostensibly vying for the same territory on the ladder.

Throughout the match there was a sense of the Kangaroos hanging on and biting away at the Eagles without believing they could win. The teams went goal-for-goal through the first quarter and completed the term with scores squared. Andrew Embley was creating enormous difficulties up forward where three different Kangaroo opponents were tried without satisfaction. The Roos' salvation only came in the following quarter when Embley strained a hamstring and left the field.

That injury helped steady a defensive structure that had been stretched by West Coast. With Judd stationed in the goal square and unable to run, the Roos indulged in the luxury of tasking Daniel Pratt to Judd, a job he would be unlikely to have in normal circumstances.

The Eagles opened the game up in the second quarter and when Matt Priddis kicked his second of the term, the Eagles commanded a 27-point lead and were on the brink of doing serious damage.

That they didn't was largely due to a busy patch from Andrew Swallow and a lift in pressure. The Roos also had numbers at the ball and the fact they kicked two goals after Quinten Lynch was reported for a late charge on Jesse Smith was not just coincidental. Their intensity lifted palpably.

Acknowledging that even with Judd restricted to the role of forward-line observer, covering every Eagles midfielder with a tagger is folly, Dean Laidley attempted to use an attacking player to run with Daniel Kerr, forcing some accountability back on the Eagle runner.

Daniel Wells had that task early on, but it didn't work; Wells found little of his own ball and was not stopping Kerr.

Wells looked better when released from the job and, in his place, the Roos introduced the unusual choice of Eddie Sansbury.

A career spent on the fringe, this was perhaps a career-defining game for Sansbury. He ran hard on Kerr but was prepared to back his own hand at the ball. This occurred in the third term when Kerr missed a chance at one end and Sansbury ran into goal to convert at the other.

The reality, however, remained that for all Sansbury's endeavour, the Roos had too few players able to get the ball through the middle of the ground. Tyson Stenglein, Matt Rosa, Adam Selwood, Priddis, Kerr and Ben Cousins all had large numbers of possessions while not one Kangaroo had a similar share of the ball. Sansbury's task on Kerr was not aided when teammate Michael Firrito attempted to rub the Eagle's nose in it when he was run down and gave away a free kick.

Firrito's gentle but unnecessary bump caused the free kick to be reversed in front of goal — one of three majors the Eagles kicked that quarter from free kicks.

A win was attainable for the Kangaroos in the final term until Cox's dribbled kick was followed by a David Wirrpanda goal, capping off a 17-point victory.

WEST COAST 4.4 9.9 13.14 17.17 (119)
KANGAROOS 4.4 8.7 11.10 15.12 (102)
Goals: West Coast: M Priddis 2 Q Lynch 2 M Rosa 2 A Hansen 2 A Embley 2 C Judd D Kerr M Seaby D Cox S Armstrong A Hunter D Wirrpanda. Kangaroos: D Petrie 2 C Jones 2 E Sansbury 2 S McMahon 2 J Sinclair J Smith G Archer L Thomas K Green B Harvey D Hale. Best: West Coast: D Kerr D Cox B Cousins A Hansen A Hunter M Priddis. Kangaroos: G Archer D Petrie J Smith B Rawlings A Simpson H McIntosh.
Umpires: M Vozzo M James M Head.
Official crowd: 26,113 at Telstra Dome.