Crows fly

by LES EVERETT

WHEN it took West Coast nearly two minutes to get a kick in the elimination final at Football Park against Adelaide it was obviously going to be a long day.

The Eagles became the second team from the west to be bundled out of the finals race when they trailled all day before going down by 56 points to the Crows. The statistically minded will be thrilled to note that West Coast's score of 8.9 (57) was exactly the same as Fremantle managed in Friday night's elimination final.

Adelaide wasted their early chances with some casual efforts particularly from Tyson Edwards around goal - the generally impressive Edwards kicked three behinds in the first quarter and finished with 2.4.

The Crows had 13 goal scorers for the afternoon and plenty of good contributors including Mark Ricciuto, Wayne Carey, Ronnie Burns, Andrew McLeod and Ben Hart.

Three players kicked West Coast's goals with Ben Cousins and Michael Gardiner, who kicked three each, probably the best in a poor overall performance by the Eagles.

So what's it all mean for WA football? We'll have to listen to talkback radio to find out definitively but the fact is that Fremantle finished seventh in 2003 and West Coast eighth.

Andrew McLeod & Mark Ricciuto. Good again.

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