It wasn’t as much beating a top four or a top eight side on the road, it was proving to the footy world that Essendon can win games on the road when they defeated Brisbane Lions on Saturday.
Our wins outside of Melbourne over the past nine years have been few and far between, and even when we were playing finals footy we seemed to lack the hunger and want to be involved in a tight tussle with our opponents.
Most of the hype in the build up was the battle of the coaches; both have captained their club to flags, five-time best and fairest winners, and the 1996 Brownlow Medal between them, to name a few.
Voss has had an inauspicious start to his coaching career, taking the lions to a semi final in his first year and going for broke for the flag last season, recruiting Staker, Raines, Clarke and Fevola, all of which backfired spectacularly in his face, with the Lions finishing a dismal 13th and being winless to start 2011.
They’ve been competitive in all of their matches bar the Bulldogs game, showing signs that maybe the Lions won’t have to wait long to see their club climb the ladder again.
Hird on the other hand hasn’t put a foot wrong in his start at Essendon. With the help of their star studded coaching staff which includes Wellman, McCartney, Goodwin and Thompson, the Dons have shown rapid improvement in all areas of play, especially their backline resistance, which was questioned at times last year.
It was also our first away win since round 15, 2009 against the Swans by 35 points, with Matty Lloyd and Scott Lucas kicking three goals each. The Dons were expected to win comfortably against the Lions, yet the match was a tight tussle for the first half.
The Lions after their horrendous loss to the Gold Coast in the Q-Clash last week had a point to prove to the footy fraternity, and they couldn’t have got off to a better start against the highly rated Dons.
Ash McGrath kicked the first two goals and it seemed that the Bombers would take a while to warm up after playing a hard fought match last week against the Eagles. Gus Monfries kicked our first, and our strong finish to the quarter saw us trail by three points at the first break. We were dominating the contested footy and the inside 50’s were 20-10.
The best way to describe the second quarter for both teams would be lethargic. Both teams couldn’t find a strong marking target and both defensive lines held up well. Daniel Merritt kept David Hille and co quiet and David Myers had one of his best games for the club with 31 disposals. Both sides traded goal for goal, and when the Lions were up by a point at the long break, there was a sniff of an upset from the Brisbane faithful.
However, that didn’t eventuate and the Dons broke clear in the premiership quarter, with goals to Zaharakis and Watson putting us clear and from then on it was just a matter of resting our players for next week. Watson was subbed late in the quarter due to a bit of hamstring tightness as a precautionary after our cruel run with injuries as of late.
After a quiet start to the game Crameri got onto the scoreboard, kicking three second half goals. A three-goal to nine second half saw the Dons run out six goal winners and consolidate their position in the four, while the Lions remain without a win in 2011, with North Melbourne next week. Expect them to be buoyed by the inclusion of Captain and spiritual leader Jonathan Brown.
A big talking point out of the match though was the goal umpires (again). The incident happened in the third term when David Hille marked from 15m out ran in and kicked what looked like a goal. After 30 seconds of discussion however, the goal umpire stuck with his original decision which was a behind.
Maybe this is another example why we need another goal umpire or better still had a video umpire for line ball decisions (have maybe three of these per team). The decision didn’t impact the outcome of the match, but surely we need to look at improving this facet of the sport.
The Dons have a long way to go if they want to taste September action. They have a tough month coming up against Richmond (MCG), the bye, Melbourne (MCG) and Fremantle (Paterson Stadium) and if they win at least two of those games they should be primed to launch an attack on the competition in the second half of the year.
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