Editor
A first-gamer has fuelled Essendon’s push for a finals berth on the Gold Coast, Josh Begley’s influential opening quarter helping the Bombers past the Suns on Saturday night.
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Final score
Gold Coast Suns 9.3.57
Essendon Bombers 12.18.90
The Essendon Bombers need to win all of their remaining matches to play finals this year, and the Gold Coast Suns are the first obstacle in their path. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:25pm (AEST).
Essendon’s first proper season under John Worsfold has had its ups and downs, but with two weeks to play, the Bombers find themselves with a realistic shot of stealing a spot in the top eight.
They don’t have full control over their destiny, but their end of the bargain only involves knocking off the lowly Suns and Dockers.
It’s been an iffy three weeks for the Dons however, with a laborious win over Carlton sandwiched between hefty losses to the Bulldogs and Adelaide.
The three weeks prior, however, were superb, with the club notching impressive wins over Collingwood, St Kilda and North Melbourne – catapulting them right back into the finals discussion.
Recapturing that form will be key to ensuring they win their last two matches and have a shot at featuring in September.
Gold Coast, on the other hand, have suffered through yet another miserable campaign in 2017.
Encouraging early season wins over Hawthorn and Geelong made it look as if the Suns might finally be turning the corner, but they’ve lost ten of 13 matches since and their last six in a row.
Gary Ablett is all but gone – to either Geelong or father time – at the end of this season while Rodney Eade has been given the sack too, putting Gold Coast at arguably their lowest ebb since inception.
The nadir of Gold Coast’s season last year, however, was a shock loss to the suspension-ravaged Bombers in Round 21, and the chance to exact revenge on their finals-hopeful opponents would be one they’re willing to take.
Essendon have dominated this young rivalry, with its most notable moment perhaps the 94-1 first quarter the Bombers put together in 2011.
The Suns have held their own at Metricon however, winning two of three contests at the venue.
Prediction
Essendon’s seemingly easy task of defeating Gold Coast and Fremantle to play finals has been often countered by their astounding collapse against Brisbane a few weeks ago.
That said, it’s almost impossible to imagine them slipping on another banana peel in such a short space of time.
Bombers by 21 points.
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