CHAD CORNES was left fuming by a seven-goal-to-one third term that saw the Eagles leave his Magpies behind at Woodville Oval on Saturday.
The Magpies had been competitive and were holding their position against the strong attacking Eagles to lead by 10 points at half time.
But the competition-leading Eagles stormed out in the third term to open a 28-point lead at half time.
The Magpies coach was left lamenting another loss to the Eagles, but was particularly disappointed by the manner in which his side fell away.
“[A] completely unacceptable performance from us and that’s two weeks in a row, it happens against well-organised, big body teams,” Cornes said.
“I didn’t see that third quarter coming I thought if we could tidy some of our stuff up going forward that we could have really taken the game on.
“The Eagles played really well again that is twice now they got us in the same way, they were a lot tougher around the footy, and are obviously a really well coached team.
“We were unacceptable in terms of everything, our ball use was very poor.”
The Magpies regained some control in the final term, but were again forced into difficult positions when trying to push the ball forward.
“They [the Eagles] are a really hard team to score against - the best defensive team in the competition - our inability to stand up when times were tough like that was really poor,” Cornes said.
