West Coast continued their strong AFL pre-season form with a 31-point win in Mandurah over a well under-strength Carlton but it could have come at a cost with their reigning best and fairest winner injuring a knee.
Just seven days after beating the Indigenous All Stars in Perth, the Eagles won their opening pre-season cup clash 1.9.15 (78) to 2.4.5 (47) over the Blues at Rushton Park in Mandurah, but the story on Friday was a knee injury to Eric Mackenzie.
The 26-year-old has turned himself into one of the AFL's best key defenders in recent years and, with 121 games under his belt, had a career-best season in 2014. He won West Coast's best and fairest award but he suffered what could be a serious injury against Carlton.
Mackenzie was innocuously involved in a marking contest during the second quarter, but his knee appeared to buckle and he was only able to hobble from the field.
Early reports suggest it could be the worst result. He will undergo scans on Saturday.
Aside from that, the signs were good from the Eagles but it was against a Carlton team missing Marc Murphy (calf), Andrew Walker (knee) and Matthew Kreuzer (foot) through injury and Bryce Gibbs, Chris Judd, Robert Warnock, Lachie Henderson, Dale Thomas, Andrew Carrazzo and Michael Jamison were rested for the trip.
Coach Mick Malthouse also remained in Melbourne to be beside his wife as she underwent exploratory surgery.
West Coast made a fast start with a strong breeze at their back in the first quarter and never looked back.
Former Blue Josh Kennedy started with a goal and then a nine-point super goal and, when Jamie Bennell added another goal, the Eagles had the only 24 points of the game to that point before Tom Bell bagged a goal just before quarter-time.
Carlton had the breeze in the second quarter and managed to break even with two goals apiece, but the Eagles again kicked away with four goals to one in the third term.
They ended up cruising to the 31-point win despite final-quarter super goals for Carlton to Zach Tuohy and Cameron Wood.
Kennedy was impressive up forward for the Eagles with four goals, including a super goal, and Mark LeCras kicked two goals while reigning Brownlow Medallist Matt Priddis was outstanding with 24 possessions. Andrew Gaff had 27 disposals, Luke Shuey 23 and Brad Sheppard 23.
Carlton might have been under-strength but there were some good signs with Tom Bell racking up 19 possessions and Patrick Cripps 13 standing out, while Simon White looked good in a new role up front with 15 disposals, six marks and a goal.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson is fearing the worst over Mackenzie's knee, with all indications pointing to a season-ending anterior-crucial ligament rupture.
"It's not great and he left at halftime so I haven't had a chance to talk to him but we fear the worst. We won't find out until tomorrow.
"We all know he's an important player for us but we will park that for the moment and just get around and see how he is tomorrow. We still don't know and there is still a small chance it might not be an ACL," Simpson said.
Rob Wiley stood in as coach for Carlton in Malthouse's absence but he saw a lot for the Blues to work on even considering the players missing.
"We've got a lot of work still to go, there is no doubting that. There were glimpses and I think some of the young kids showed some patches but, overall, West Coast played some pretty good football and we're just lacking in some areas.
"But it's the 27th of February. It's better to have them now when there's a fair bit of work to do, and it's disappointing, but some positive stuff to come out," Wiley said.
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