Round 1 – Geelong v Essendon: Agony for Dons’ supporters

 

 

 

I was so excited to be going to the ‘G to watch the mighty Dons take on the Geelong Senior Citizens. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen footy live, and even though I try to take no notice of the press prior to the season, I felt that Essendon was going to be a power, young, strong and superbly fit against an ‘aged’ Geelong team.

 

The day was sunny and very warm and I got my favourite seat to watch the game, what could go wrong?

 

Well, quite a number of things actually. They must have equipped the Dons with boots without stops and had the players lubricate their hands in vaseline. From the very start they were playing catch up to the Cats, who were superior all over the ground, especially at centre bounces. To add to the problem Essendon dropped marks they should have taken, slipped over in contests and appeared hesitant when going for the ball.

 

Being an optimistic person I thought after the quarter time break Essendon would get their act together. I watched the multiple coaches talking to the players, but alas it was more of the same. Forget that rubbish about Geelong being ‘old’. They were faster, more skillful and showed the Dons what smarter teamwork looks like. I was finding it hard to find a winner for Essendon and when I did, number 37, Nic Martin, who was listed in the Record as number 47, showed his teammates how to play the game.

 

After half time the Dons managed to slow Geelong’s scoring and to a degree they succeeded but not enough to get back in the game. It continued to be one sided. Geelong missed some easy shots at goal kicking 5.5 for the quarter to the Dons three straight. So at three quarter time Essendon were 77 points down the drain, or should I say trailing Geelong.

 

Last quarter and more agony for Don supporters.  The game was slowing down, the heat of the playing ground would have been exhausting and to their credit Essendon actually out scored Geelong, but then I think they were playing it easy. Geelong had stars all over the ground, the one shining light for Essendon was Nick Martin who scored five straight goals and was a winner on the day. Lets hope he plays in his right jumper next week, number 47.

 

Now I have to face Fred and the Carlton four. Oh, and Barnsley lost to Sheffield United and Reading won and I picked 0-9 in the footy picking.  Enough disappointing news is enough.

 

 

 

GEELONG         7.5     12.9   17.14   20.18 (138)
ESSENDON       2.1     3.3     6.3      11.6 (72)

 

GOALS  
Geelong: Hawkins, Stengle 4, Cameron, Close, Holmes 2, Dangerfield, Dahlhaus, Tuohy, Higgins, Guthrie, Evans
Essendon: Martin 5, Wright, Caldwell 2, Smith, Cutler

 

BEST  
Geelong: Dangerfield, Stengle, Hawkins, Parfitt, C.Guthrie, Selwood
Essendon: Martin, Merrett, McGrath, Parish, Caldwell

 

Votes: Parfitt  (G)3  Danderfield (G) 2 Stengle (G)1      Special mention to Martin (Ess)

 

INJURIES
Geelong: Cameron (hip pointer)
Essendon: Langford (hamstring), Laverde (hip)

 

SUBSTITUTES
Geelong: Francis Evans (replaced Jeremy Cameron in the second quarter)
Essendon: Tom Cutler (replaced Kyle Langford in the first quarter)

 

Crowd: 54,495

 

 

More from Rod Oaten can be read HERE.

 

 

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