Woodville-West Torrens beats West Adelaide by 63 points

IN the end, Woodville-West Torrens coach Michael Godden did not need his calculator.

EAGLES V WEST at Woodville Oval. Eagles no 16 Lachlan McGregor. Pic: Tricia Watkinson.

IN the end, Woodville-West Torrens coach Michael Godden did not need his calculator.

The Eagles secured a finals berth with a 63-point win over West Adelaide in a one-sided contest at Woodville on Saturday.

Michael Wundke starred for the home side, booting eight goals to overtake former South Adelaide teammate Brett Eddy and snatch his third Ken Farmer Medal.

The winning margin was so large it would have taken Central District thumping North Adelaide at Prospect to push the Eagles out of the top five.

That did not happen, ensuring Godden’s team finished the minor round a win clear of the Bulldogs and Roosters, and booked a spot in the elimination final.

Most pleasing for Eagles fans was that the side regained their mojo when they needed after entering the game on the back of four consecutive losses.

“We felt that if we finished today it would have been a tragedy,” Godden said.

“Internally we’ve been continuing to work on things that haven’t been working for us.

“We’re on the upward curve. We’re by no means an elite footy team but we’ve turned the corner.”

In a game it had to win to make the finals, the Eagles took control early a five-goal-to-one first quarter.

And they never looked back, dominating the next three terms as Scott Lewis (29 disposals, six clearances) and Nathan Batley (30 disposals, 14 marks) found plenty of the footy.

Wundke looked ominous from the outset, kicking three goals in the first term as he got on top of Tom Keough.

West’s pressure was impressive in the first 10 or so minutes but it dropped away and its ball use was ordinary, as many turnovers led to Eagles goals.

Poor discipline was another problem for the Bloods.

Twice in the opening term the Eagles kicked majors from the goal square after 25m penalties.

The Eagles moved the ball cleaner, quicker, with more purpose and it helped that they kicked accurately to finish off the good work up the ground.

With no passengers against the Bloods, retiring forward Adam Grocke set to return to the team from concussion and Angus Rowntree in contention after another game in the reserves, the Eagles should have plenty of options at the selection table going into the cut-throat final.

For West, the result was a disappointing send-off for 119-game utility Ben Fisher, who announced his retirement before the match.

The loss also meant West — a preliminary finalist last season — finished second-bottom and went the entire season without winning an away game.

Bloods coach Mark Mickan said a poor pre-season was one of the major factors behind his team’s slide.

“If we get our squad up and running and fit, we can still be a formidable team,” Mickan said.

“But that won’t happen without hard work.”