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Highlights: Bombers blow pitiful Port away

10th June, 2017
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Cale Hooker of the Bombers celebrates with team mates after scoring a goal during the Round 2 AFL match between the Brisbane Lions and the Essendon Bombers at the Gabba in Brisbane, Saturday, April 1, 2017. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)
Roar Guru
10th June, 2017
20
1417 Reads

Well, well, well Port Adelaide – it’s best not to believe the hype, they have been thrashed by 70 points at Etihad Stadium by Essendon on Saturday night.

Essendon were brilliant from early in the first quarter, kicking seven goals with little in reply.

They ran the ball off of the half back line with ease. Cale Hooker got the Essendon forward line off to a massive start taking some great contested marks and kicking five goals for the night.

Joe Daniher and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti also kicked four goals apiece with an even performance across the board from the Bombers forwards.

As brilliant as Essendon were, it has to be said, the Power were in incredibly poor form. Every time they managed to get possession of the ball they seemed to make a terrible decision, with Essendon scoring over the vast majority of points from turnovers.

It’s genuinely hard to pick a positive here from Port, the performance was truly pitiful.

A series of behinds to save some percentage in the last quarter really said it all, with stars Robbie Gary and Ollie Wines not in the game at all.

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As a consequence they find themselves losing 14 percentage points and looking absolutely nothing like top four material.

The only positive to take from this is that most of the great sides in the competition this year have had a few awful weeks – let’s hope this is the case for the Power, or maybe they are just pretenders rather than contenders after all.

Essendon jump from 12th to 6th off of the back of that win. It’s a horrendous cliche, but everyone in the side really contributed this evening.

In addition to the forwards, a special mention should go to Zach Merrett for his 39 touches, Heppell for his 34 and Watson for his 29.

They were truly untouchable tonight and as a footy fan, after everything this club has been through it was absolutely sensational to watch. Perhaps a fantasy 2017 performance isn’t off the agenda just yet.

Essendon head into a bye next week, while the Power will have a lot to prove to a voracious Adelaide media who have absolutely nothing better to talk about but will be hoping to make amends against the Lions at home next week.

Final score
Essendon Bombers 19.17.131
Port Adelaide Power 8.13.61

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