North Melbourne great David King believes West Coast has snuck under the radar this season and questioned whether the football fraternity give them the credit they deserve.
The Eagles prevailed in their titanic Qualifying Final encounter against Collingwood by 16 points to advance to their first Preliminary Final since 2015.
King praised Adam Simpson and his team for hanging tough when it looked like the Magpies were on the brink of causing a major finals upset.
“It was probably the best final we’ve seen for some time, it had everything,” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“It was in a lot of ways set up for Collingwood to win that game, at some point during the third quarter I reckon everyone watching the game would have thought: ‘gee they’re on, this is there’s.’
“But credit to Adam Simpson and the coaching, they put Mark LeCras behind the ball as a seventh defender for a little while, Lewis Jetta played a fair bit down back.
“I just thought they were able to hang in when the game was going against them.
“They were just awesome and I just think we don’t talk a lot about the West Coast.
“They’ve just snuck under the radar doing what they do at home, but I think they’ve shown they’ve got more than what we’ve given them credit for.”
After a sluggish start following a lengthy injury lay-off, star forward Josh Kennedy got going in the second half and King believes he was the difference between the two teams.
“The game of Jeremy McGovern at one end, and Josh Kennedy at the other, Kennedy desperately needed the run,” King added.
“He was targeted six times in the first half - no marks, everything went through his hands.
“He was almost laughing at his own game there. He was targeted six times in the second half and kicked two goals and four behinds and took four marks inside 50.
“He was the difference in the game.”
West Coast will now play either Hawthorn or Melbourne at Optus Stadium in a fortnight’s time for a spot in the Grand Final.
Listen to David King’s chat on SEN’s Whateley with Gerard Whateley in the player below