AFL round 18 wrap: West Coast competitive against Port, but fall short in Jamie Cripps’ milestone match

West Coast jumped out of the box and held the lead for three quarters but fell short when Port Adelaide surged to life in a 26-point comeback win, souring Jamie Cripps’ 250th game for the blue and gold.

The Eagles were 25 points in front at quarter time at Adelaide Oval on Sunday in round 18, and were looking good for a surprise victory, in what would have only been their second win for the season.

However, Port began to claw them back and a surge in the final term saw them win by 26 points, 12.15 (87) to 9.7 (61).

The Eagles were spurred on in their lively and competitive performance — at least for three quarters — by wanting to honour Cripps’ 250th for the club.

The Northampton product has become just the 12th player to play 250 games for West Coast.

Despite the loss, the Eagles veteran was chaired off the ground by his 2018 premiership teammates Liam Duggan and Tom Cole.

It was a quiet day for the milestone man, who ended up with nine disposals and no goals.

Before the game, fellow Mid West products in West Coast’s 2018 premiership, Josh Kennedy and Mark LeCras, paid tribute to their former teammate and his mammoth contribution to the club.

“He’s a player that goes under the radar a little bit,” Kennedy said.

“People look at his stats, they look for the goals and how many touches he has but for our team and what he did especially over that successful period was unbelievable in terms of the work-rate that he puts in to create space to open those wings for us.

“To help down at half-back and then work back to do his thing up forward. A lot of our style of play was relying on Crippa and the space he was able to open up for a lot of other players. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we did without him.”

LeCras added: “He quickly created almost his own role for himself just through his work-rate and gut running he could do that no one else could.

“A lot of it goes unnoticed to the public bit internally he’s really highly rated.”

Other AFL players from the Mid West were scattered through round 18 games. Tyler Brockman had 10 disposals and kicked one goal, while Liam Ryan was a late omission with soreness.

Carlton captain Patrick Cripps was again among his team’s best in the Blues’ 37-points defeat, 9.12 (66) to 15.13 (103), against Brisbane at Marvel on Thursday night, with 26 disposals, one goal, six tackles, nine clearances and 419 metres gained to his name.

Geelong recruit Jack Martin collected 14 disposals and eight marks as the Cats went down to GWS in Sydney on Saturday, 17.19 (111) to 13.7 (85).

Jaeger O’Meara had nine disposals and eight tackles in Fremantle’s gritty 13-point win on Saturday night against Hawthorn at Optus Stadium, 12.5 (77) to 9.10 (64), in a must-win victory that saw them climb back into the top eight.

On Sunday at the MCG, Melbourne defender Judd McVee had nine disposals and four marks as the Demons proved too strong for North Melbourne, winning 18.11 (119) to 12.11 (83).