Round 10 – Essendon v Fremantle: Ex-Bomber Voss stars for the Dockers

 

 

Round 10 (Sir Doug Nicholls Round)
Essendon v Fremantle
1.10pm, Sunday 17th May 2026
MCG

 

 

It is getting harder and harder attending Essendon matches without the pleasure of enjoying a victory or two. 

 

I have been an Essendon member for many years, attending all homematches and the occassional away game. I enjoy going to the footy and following the fortunes of my team, unfortunately those fortunes are not forthcoming at the moment. 

 

My 19 yo grandson comes with me, he sometimes is the driver from Colac to the Waurn Ponds Station especially night games where we meet up with a couple of mates for the trip by train to Melbourne.

 

Whether Marvel or the MCG my two daughters and two other grandsons are also in attendance at most matches. It is always fab to catch up with them, all of us decked out in our Bomber colours but it has been a long time between drinks for wins.

 

Although a lot of rain fell in the previous 24 hours the ground looked in tremendous nick. Some light rain fell at times during the match obviously making the ground slippery and ball handling awkward.

 

Previewing the game we thought it imperative Essendon got off to a good start but a Docker goal in the first 30 seconds was an ominous warning to Bomber supporters of what was to come. And come they did.  Another 3 or 4 goals in quick sucession made the Bombers look slow and outclassed. It was a relief to finally kick a goal but more or less the horse had bolted.

 

The second quarter had Bombers fans gnashing their teeth as former Bomber Patrick Voss kicked 4 goals for the quarter, and eventually 5 for the match, as we shook our heads wondering why he was never given an opportunity at senior level at Essendon. Voss certainly let the Essendon hierarchy, coaches, and selectors know what he is made of with his fine performance and what we are missing out on!

 

The Dockers are a very good team. Their mids and running players are outstanding; Shai Bolton, Andrew Brayshaw, Caleb Serong, and Murphy Reid were dominant players all day racking up possession after possession and putting them to good use.

 

Darcy Parish had a good game as did Archie Roberts who must loom as a real dark-horse for this year’s Brownlow Medal. Sully Robey continued his good form and is getting better week by week. He and Roberts, Day-Wicks, Caddy and Kako are the future of our club.

 

Our talls on the forward line had less than 10 marks between them as the Docker defenders relentlessy punched and spoiled all marking attempts. With the ball ending up at the bottom of the packs more often than not, a nippy small should have had a field day but none were there. Only more Docker players cleaning up and effortlessly moving the ball out of defence. We missed Kako in this situation, even Gresham may have taken adavantage of the ball on the ground.

 

I suppose the pleasing aspect of the game was we weren’t blown out of the water with a mammoth loss after it looking that way in the first half. 43 points is bad enough but we kept with the Dockers and outscored them in the second half.

 

Where to from here is hard to know. With winnable games coming up in the next few weeks against Richmond, West Coast, and Carlton, losing all three and I’d imagine supporters will be howling for blood.

 

Essendon must look to the future, continue playing the ‘kids’, give them a crack and let’s see what they are made of.

 

 

 

ESSENDON     1.3    1.8     3.12      8.13 (61)
WALYALUP    5.4   10.6      13.6      16.8 (104)

 

GOALS
Essendon: May 2, Caddy 2, Robey 2, Parish, Setterfield
Walyalup: Voss 5, Treacy 2, Bolton 2, Amiss 2, Scerri, Dudley, Jackson, Frederick, Reid

 

BEST
Essendon: Merrett, Caldwell, Parish, Robey
Walyalup: Voss, Treacy, Reid, Serong, Chapman, Worner, Brayshaw

 

Crowd: 25,100 at the MCG

 

Round 10 Match reports are Here