Essendon have produced a brilliant performance to comprehensively defeat a rejuvenated Hawthorn team by 25 points in a Saturday night blockbuster at the MCG.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Essendon Bombers 17.14.116
Hawthorn Hawks 12.19.91
It’s a Saturday night blockbuster as the starting afresh Essendon Bombers take on the revitalised Hawthorn Hawks at the MCG. Join us on The Roar for live scores and a blog from 7:25pm AEDT.
Tonight, it’s Essendon’s first chance to present their refreshed team, and they’re more than ready to get going after a turbulent few years. And, they’ve got the perfect chance to do exactly that: a Saturday night game against Hawthorn at the MCG.
Essendon’s 2016 a pretty painful one – for very understandable reasons, they crashed to a wooden spoon finish.
While looking decent in a handful of games, their player suspensions ended up being too hard to overcome, but for any optimistic Bombers fans, 2016 was (hopefully) a case of short-term pain for long-term pain.
Hawthorn had a very different year, which came to an end in a semi-final against the rampaging Bulldogs.
Alastair Clarkson didn’t hold back during the off-season, shipping off Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis, handing Jarryd Roughhead the captaincy, and brining in talent including Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell.
Both teams are bringing out the big guns for this match. Essendon will have six of their banned stars returning for the first time since 2016: Dyson Heppell, Michael Hurley, Travis Colyer, Cale Hooker, Jobe Watson and Brent Stanton all pull on their footy boots once again.
They’ve also handed debuts to two of their newest players: former Brisbane Lion Josh Green, and 2016’s number one draftee Andrew McGrath.
Hawthorn will be led out onto the prestigious MCG ground by the inspirational Jarryd Roughhead (in his first game as the Hawks captain), while high-profile new Hawks Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara, Ricky Henderson and Ty Vickery will also all make their club debuts.
O’Meara’s debut, especially, is something that will draw plenty of attention, no doubt.
In a weird sign for Hawks fans, there’s no Sam Mitchell or Jordan Lewis on the team list, and Luke Hodge also won’t be playing due to an off-season indiscretion.
The only game between these two teams last year ended up being a heavy Hawthorn win in Round 12, but it’s honestly hard to look at the past few results.
Tonight’s game is literally the beginning of a new era for the Dons, and the beginning of the Hawthorn revitalisation. Get excited, folks.
Prediction
While most would probably be expecting Hawthorn to end up comfortably winning this one, I’m going go a tad left field and say that Essendon’s passion will ever so slightly get them over the line. No matter the result, though, it’s going to be one hell of a game.
Essendon by 5 points.
Stevie's Don's
Guest
Power to the people's
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Ah, yeah. That was a bad call, but too be completely fair even if that was a goal it's my opinion that Hawthorn wasn't anywhere near as good as Essendon was in that second half.
Peppsy
Roar Guru
The "touched" smith bomb from the centre circle Didn't even get a review
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Which decision was that, Peppsy?
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
» Click here to read the full match report Votes 3 - Dyson Heppell (Essendon): The Bomber's new captain was brilliant this evening, with 34 touches (16 of them contested) and three goals. Led his team brilliantly, and his popularity with the team was exemplified 2 - Zach Merrett (Essendon): The youngster was everywhere, racking up 16 disposals and finishing with 37 (only 12 contested, yet he was the most prolific player on the ground) . Kid's a serious talent. 1 - Orazio Fantasia (Essendon): Damn, this kid can score! Nailed four goals, including a wonderful 'drop-kick' goal. Easily the most impressive forward on ground tonight. Probably a bit stiff on a few Hawks - namely Tom Mitchell, but it was the Essendon's total team effort that stood out today.
Peppsy
Roar Guru
Just gonna ignore the most contentious decision of the game. K then
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Essendon have produced a brilliant performance to comprehensively defeat a rejuvenated Hawthorn team by 25 points in a Saturday night blockbuster at the MCG. In one of the greatest performances of their recent history, Essendon quite literally performed a real life interpretation of their “comeback story” marketing campaign, storming back from a Hawthorn counterattack in the second quarter to get on top in the third, and were never deterred by a desperate Hawthorn to hold on to record a famous victory. The game started all on Essendon’s terms, with the team running out to a 19 point lead just eight minutes in before Hawthorn slowly but surely climbed back into the game. With goals from Cyril Rioli and Liam Shiels, the Hawks shook of the original Essendon attack before faltering a little to be thirteen points in arrears at the quarter time mark. It was all the Hawks in the second quarter, with the Alistair Clarkson-led team scoring four goals to Essendon’s one throughout the quarter. With a half time lead of eight-points, and quick goals from Issac Smith and inspirational new captain Jarryd Roughead to start the second half, pessimistic Essendon fans would’ve been forgiven if they thought the Hawks would run over the top of their team. That wasn’t to be. The optimistic members of the huge Essendon contingent in the MCG crowd would’ve been proven very, very right with their team suddenly opening the floodgates and scoring five consecutive goals to stun the Hawks. The went into three-quarter time with a very impressive 10 point lead. The fourth quarter picked up immediately where the previous one had finished off, with two quick Dons goals putting their teams close to triple-figures. The time for the Hawks to launch their final offensive was seemingly always ripe, but they never managed it. The glory was all the Dons, and the finished off with an historic win. The Dons were more efficient with their 428 disposals – compared to the Hawks 374 disposals. They also destroyed the Hawks on the wings, constantly making it way too easy to move out of defence straight into attack. The Dons were brilliantly served by new captain Dyson Heppell (34 touches, eight marks, three goals), Zach Merrett (37 touches), Brendan Goddard (29 touches), Orazio Fantasia (4 very impressive goals), Jobe Watson (27 touches) and their number one draftee Andrew McGrath (22 touches and 6 marks!). Hawthorn were very well served by new recruit Tom Mitchell (37 disposals, but 2 behinds), Will Langford (27 disposals) and Jaeger O’Meara (23 disposals, but a disappointing 3 behinds). The Hawks face the Crows next week in a tantalising game, whilst Essendon face a suddenly harder assignment against the Lions at the Gabba.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
ESSENDON HAVE WON! It's the Bombers by 25 points here at the MCG. What a stunning performance by the team from Tullamarine. Match report and three best players to come. Essendon: 17.14 (116) Hawthorn: 12.19 (91)
Stevie's Don's
Guest
POWER POWER POWER all 6foot4 of bomber-beauty
XI
Roar Guru
Definitely. All the matches tomorrow have quite a lot of interesting questions to answer
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Less than 3 and a half minutes to go.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
GOAL ESSENDON Surely - surely - Stanton just sealed this game. Gotta love how McDonald-Tipungwuti gave him that ball. Essendon by 25. Essendon: 17.14 (116) Hawthorn: 12.19 (91)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
GOAL HAWTHORN Puopolo with a nice goal. A consolation price, perhaps? Unless they pull something super special out of the bag. Essendon by 19. Essendon: 16.14 (110) Hawthorn: 12.19 (91)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Yup, I'd agree. Tomorrow's games have the potential to be very, very good though.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
BEHIND HAWTHORN Burgoyne misses. Essendon by 26. Essendon: 16.14 (110) Hawthorn: 11.18 (84)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
GOAL ESSENDON Heppell gets his fourth. Hawthorn have to pull something very special out of the bag now. Essendon by 27. Essendon: 16.14 (110) Hawthorn: 11.17 (83)
XI
Roar Guru
Been a pretty good game. The best one so far this round.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
GOAL HAWTHORN Roughead with a silky goal. Of course he'd be the one to drag them back into contention. Because ... fairytales and all that. Essendon: 15.14 (104) Hawthorn: 11.16 (83)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
GOAL ESSENDON Daniher kicks his third. You'd have to assume the Bombers are just about home now. Essendon: 14.12 (104) Hawthorn: 10.16 (77)
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Essendon's running game is on fire tonight! This is some brilliant footy to watch. The fans at the MCG are definitely getting their moneys worth tonight.