West Coast suffer banner fail in Bombers’ thrilling win
The writing might have been on the wall for West Coast’s latest defeat after an epic fail from its cheer squad before taking on Essendon.
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Essendon has survived a huge scare from the West Coast Eagles to snatch a two-point win in an AFL thriller in Perth.
The winless Eagles bolted out of the gates, kicking six goals to one in some of the best football they’ve played in years before the Bombers rallied for an 11.11 (77) to 11.9 (75) victory at Optus Stadium.
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Peter Wright starred with six goals for the visitors, while Nic Martin, Will Setterfield and Dylan Shiel all played their part in Essendon’s third straight win that leaves it just percentage outside the top eight.
Jake Waterman booted four goals and Jeremy McGovern starred for the Eagles, but perhaps the writing was already on the wall – pun fully intended – after a banner fail from the West Coast cheer squad.
The Eagles and Bombers once had one of the biggest rivalries in the game, fanned by Kevin Sheedy’s famous jacket wave back in 1993.
West Coast was hoping to channel that emotion with a banner that read: “Sheedy v Malthouse, a 90s rivalry fave, we’re bringing it back, give your scarf a wave.”
The only problem was rivalry was spelled RIVLARY, as you can see in the video above.
The moment wasn’t missed by the Fox Footy commentary team during the match.
“This is the banner pre-match,” said Adam Papalia.
“Just trying to get the fans into the rivalry of Sheedy v Malthouse, just a bit of a spellcheck issue.”
Sideline commentator Nick Dal Santo added: “I’m not a Rhodes scholar but that doesn’t look right to me.”
Local website The West Australian also poked some fan at the error, busting out its own pun with a caption on X: “Did any Eagle-eyed fans spot the mistake in West Coast’s banner?”
One fan replied: “Yeah – their spellings as good as their kicking.”
Regardless of the spelling issue, the match was a vast improvement for the home side, which was coming off 81 and 71-point thrashings against the Giants and Blues respectively.
It was also an important victory for the Bombers, who will go into next Friday’s Anzac Day clash against Collingwood on the back of three consecutive wins, for the first time since 2019.
The Bombers’ big man stocks look to have suffered another significant blow during the narrow win, however, with ruckman Sam Draper appearing to injure his right leg.
A week after Nick Bryan went down for the season with an ACL, Draper limped from Optus Stadium early in the final term and didn’t return after struggling to put weight on his right leg.
If it turns out to be a long-term injury, it will be the third the Bombers will have suffered in the early stages of the season, with key forward Thomas Edwards also sidelined for the remainder of 2025.
It all meant Wright could not have returned to the Bombers’ line up at a better time.
His six-goal return was his best since booting the same against Hawthorn in round 8, 2022.
Friday was Wright’s first game for the season since overcoming an ankle ligament injury.
He played mostly forward and kicked the Bombers’ first three goals.
The two he booted in the second term were after taking the only two marks inside 50 that the Bombers managed for the first half. They finished with 12.
Andrew McQualter is still searching for his first win as full-time senior coach, which had looked likely when West Coast led by 29 points in the second term and 25 points midway through the third.
When Jack Williams kicked a goal to bring the margin to two points, there was still 28 seconds left on the clock.
But it wasn’t to be for West Coast, which will continue its hunt for a first win of the season against the Hawks in Melbourne next week.
– with NewsWire
Originally published as West Coast suffer banner fail in Bombers’ thrilling win
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