Round 5 Gather Round – Melbourne v Essendon: Dees Bomb!

That was massive, massive indeed! It was a confidence boosting win for a young team beginning to find its way, showing its potential to meld into a very good team.

 

Ok, except for a purple patch in the third quarter, Melbourne looked a shadow of their old self but it still had many of their recent premiership players in the side, very good players who can turn it on and change the direction of a match.

 

In the past when teams were having a run on, and looked like completely running over the top of the Bombers, they did. This time, the Bombers showed maturity, weathering the storm, then bounced back strongly. This was a pleasing aspect of the game for Essendon.

 

The knee injury to Nick Bryan was the one sour note to come out of the game for Essendon, how serious it is we’ll find out early this week but it will require a rethink of the Bomber set up for the coming weeks. However, what it did do was enable Saad El-Hawli virtually a full game of play coming on to replace Bryan as the sub, and didn’t he look and play like a ten year veteran! If not already a cult figure he is fast becoming one!

 

There were many good things to come out of the game for Essendon. Redman had his best game for a while and kicked one of his cracking trademark goals; Reid, now with a few games under his belt, is showing the potential we know he is capable of, Settlefield did the job asked of him unobtrusively and effectively, and Shiel had a blinder in the first half. The small forwards were exciting and always looked damaging, especially Menzies with his four goals, Gresham was again lively, and Kako has big things ahead of him.

 

Draper was superb, and Merrett, well he was Merrett – inspirational. Duursma cruising up and down his wing was sublime with his running, marking, and being in the right place at the right time – he has slotted in extremely well.

 

There was a lot to like about Essendon’s win.

 

 

MELBOURNE    1.4    2.5    7.7      8.9 (57)
ESSENDON      3.4    7.4    10.5    15.6 (96)

 

GOALS
Melbourne: Pickett 2, Fritsch 2, Sparrow, Sharp, Petty, Langdon
Essendon: Menzie 4, Hobbs 2, Caddy 2, Shiel, Perkins, Martin, Jones, Gresham, Duursma, Redman

 

BEST
Melbourne: Gawn, Pickett, Petracca, Langdon, Bowey
Essendon: Merrett, Martin, Menzie, Ridley, Durham, Shiel

 

INJURIES
Melbourne: TBC
Essendon: Bryan (knee)

 

SUBSTITUTES
Melbourne: Harry Sharp, replaced Jack Henderson in the third quarter
Essendon: Saad El-Hawli, replaced Nick Bryan in the first quarter

 

Crowd: 45,039 at Adelaide Oval

 

More from Col Ritchie can be read Here

 

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