West Coast Eagles star Oscar Allen reveals changing weather contributed to inaccuracy against North Melbourne

West Coast captain Oscar Allen has revealed it was significantly windier than what players anticipated during Sunday’s loss to North Melbourne and the combination of a tricky breeze and a bigger oval played a huge role in his team’s inaccuracy. The Eagles kicked 6.16 and also had multiple shots sail out of bounds on the full during their 10-point loss at Bunbury’s Hands Oval. North Melbourne also struggled to kick goals for most of the day. Allen said there was a clear difference between the weather conditions at ground level and what was going on when the ball was kicked high. “It was weird. At ground level it didn’t feel windy but when the ball got in the air, it was doing tricks,” Allen told The West Australian. “It was hard to read the flight and a lot of kicks were mungs or end over end kicks and there were a lot of intercept marks for both teams because of that. As a forward that was disappointing. We had a lot more inside 50s and to not kick a winning score was disappointing.” The Eagles dominated the inside 50s all day, winning that battle 63-41 but failed to capitalise on that supply. Allen said his team paid a clear price for their failure to adjust to the bigger oval given it was clearly longer than most AFL venues. The key forward said that extra length often left forwards out of position when the ball was coming down the field, and contributed to a lot of passes were being marked on the 50m line instead of closer to goal. Allen said the Eagles created enough chances to win the game. “We took too many long shots. We took too many shots where we were outside of our comfort range,” he said. “We would have had 10 shots touched on the line. It’s a big ground. We thought we kicked with the wind with the first and third quarter but our shots were falling short. It was playing tricks. “I said to the boys before the game that we’re all used to playing in stadiums with no wind. It was an adjustment for us and we didn’t get it right.” The loss means the Eagles will now find it tough to get off the bottom of the ladder given they have only one win so far this year. North Melbourne moved to three wins and one draw while Richmond are in 17th spot with three victories.