Bombers Take A Turn To Fly Higher Than Eagles

The Age

Saturday June 14, 2008

Len Johnson with Nick Sheridan

THE Bombers versus the Eagles. Once high flyers both, if they have flown at all this year Essendon has resembled the Spruce Goose, while the Eagles have soared like emus.

It was Essendon's turn to fly last night, the Dons beating the Eagles by 22 points for their third win of the season. It put them one place higher on the ladder and sent the fans home happy for once in a so-far forlorn season.

Each side has walked in the other's shoes of recent times, switching from competitive to inept by the week. West Coast defeated Adelaide easily, then was thrashed by Collingwood before pushing Sydney all the way. Essendon was trounced by Richmond, conceding eight goals before scoring any, pushed Adelaide to five points in Adelaide, then faded in the second half against Hawthorn last week.

Last night, it was Essendon's turn to shine. It led at every change and won each quarter, although only the last by more than a goal (and that was seven points). Nor was it a performance to rave about.

The pleasing thing for Matthew Knights would have been the contribution from young and old, experienced and inexperienced. Young midfielders Brent Stanton and Angus Monfries were great contributors, as were Kyle Reimers, Sam Lonergan and Dustin Fletcher.

Under-fire captain Matthew Lloyd stood up for his club after overcoming not only several weeks of torrid criticism but an unspecified "knock" in training this week that caused some bleeding before the captain made the call yesterday morning that he would play. The decision turned out to be a fruitful one, with Lloyd gathering 21 possessions, kicking two goals and taking a screamer over the head of Beau Wilkes in the final term.

"He took a slight injury into the game, but you wouldn't have known it. His work-rate across centre half-forward and even up onto the wings at stages was really great for our side," Knights said, adding: "He put a pretty big smile on his coach's face when he sat on that bloke's head."

David Hille was the standout all night, with 27 touches, 22 hitouts and three goals. Knights said he had asked Hille to play his own game last night, rather than spend too much time focusing on All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox. "Even though (Cox) is a great player, (Hille) in his own right is having a good year, so I wanted him to attack the contest and see if he could gather some disposals as well, rather than just do a shutdown role," Knights said.

For the losers, it was probably over when Daniel Kerr could not take his place in the side, due to a slight calf strain. Cox could not match it with Hille around the field, and while youngsters Chris Masten and Jamie McNamara worked tirelessly, David Wirrpanda provided the only reliable scoring option.

Fittingly, it was Lloyd's soaring mark and goal early in the final quarter that put the Dons 21 points up and irreversibly heading towards victory. See the Bombers fly up: didn't happen last week, might not happen next week, but it happened last night.

As for the Eagles, it is hard to imagine that efforts equivalent to last week's against Sydney and, two weeks before that, to the win over Adelaide would not have comfortably accounted for Essendon. But in between those two came the 100-point thrashing from Collingwood, so the away form held true.

For one of the few times this year, Essendon produced a four-quarter effort. It led by 11 points at half-time after finishing both the first and second quarters with the last three goals. In the second half, the Dons built on their lead early in each quarter, finally pushing the game beyond West Coast's reach.

Knights solved the problem of what to do with the out-of-form Lloyd by starting him on the half-forward line and running him through the midfield. That left Scott Lucas and Jay Neagle as the key targets. Though neither was dominant, each contributed three goals.

Lloyd's effort could not be faulted. For most of the night, he was opposed by a player in his fourth game in Wilkes, but he also won his fair share of the ball in traffic and wound up contributing two goals and having a hand in three more.

Essendon's main worry was that it took a long time to show on the scoreboard the superiority it enjoyed on the field. It had a marked edge in possession, had 60 inside-50 entries (16 above its 2008 average per game) to the Eagles' 49 and still the game was not won beyond doubt until Reimers and Neagle kicked successive goals late in the final term. Essendon also did not have an opponent for Wirrpanda - Adam Ramanauskas, Jay Nash and Henry Slattery all having a crack before half-time. Slattery did best, but Wirrpanda could easily have finished with six goals instead of the four he got.

Adam Hunter was the Eagles' only other consistent target, though Mark LeCras matched him in the end, with three last-quarter goals. But Hunter is more effective playing as a pinch-hitting forward than a permanent one and with Fletcher controlling full-back, the Eagles had no reliable forward marking target.

Without Kerr, the Eagles could not capitalise on Cox's dominance of the hitouts. The Dons' midfield mostly got first hands to the ball, enjoyed the edge in centre clearances and a more marked advantage around the ground.

Essendon led by 11 points at half-time after a hat-trick of goals finally allowed it to capitalise on some of its edge in general play. Before that, it had managed only four goals from 15 scoring shots.

The Dons got the last three goals of the first quarter, too, Hille booting one that reclaimed the lead with one second left. From the bounce for their third goal, Monfries won a free kick in the middle and set Fletcher loose, whose handball was taken by Hille. With nothing on, the big man ran 15 metres and let fly from close to the boundary, close to 60 out. It sailed through. -- With NICK SHERIDAN

FAST FOOTY

ESSENDON

4.6 7.11 11.14 16.17 (113)

WEST COAST

4.1 6.6 9.11 13.13 (91)

GOALS

Essendon: Hille 3, Lucas 3, Neagle 3, Lloyd 2, Laycock, Lovett-Murray,

Monfries, Ramanauskas, Reimers.

West Coast: Wirrpanda 4, Hunter 3, LeCras 3, Embley, Staker, Wilkes.

BEST

Essendon: Hille, Fletcher, McVeigh, Watson, Reimers.

West Coast: Wirrpanda, McNamara, Masten, Cox, Priddis, Stenglein.

INJURIES

Essendon: Lovett (virus) replaced in selected side by Atkinson.

West Coast: Kerr (calf) replaced in selected side by McNamara.

UMPIRES

Rosebury, Chamberlain, Jeffery.

CROWD

33,386 at Telstra Dome.

THE UPSHOT

The Dons won a double victory last night, notching their first win since round three and restricting their opponent to less than 100 points for only the third time this year.

TALKING POINT

Anybody who backed the Eagles last night would have been despondent at the news that midfield force Daniel Kerr was a late scratching. While Andrew Lovett was a late withdrawal for Essendon, it's fair to say Kerr's absence was most keenly felt. Oh, and Matthew Lloyd is back in town.

HOT AND COLD

David Hille was dominant, winning the night in the ruck, leading the possession count with Brent Stanton (27) and contributing three goals, including a boomer from the boundary line 60 metres out on the run in the final seconds of the first quarter. Adam Ramanauskas, however, was quiet. He sparked up somewhat in the second half, kicking the opening goal of the final term, but the damage was done in the first half, when he gave away two goals to Wirrpanda due to bad judgement in marking contests.

© 2008 The Age

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