Roar Guru
The Essendon Bombers have defeated the Brisbane Lions by 22 points at the Gabba on Sunday afternoon.
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Final score
Brisbane Lions 8.14.62
Essendon Bombers 12.12.84
The Essendon Bombers will travel to the Gabba to take on the Brisbane Lions on Sunday. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 1:10pm AEST.
Both teams are looking to respond after poor performances last weekend.
Brisbane went down by 54 points to North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.
Down to one rotation on the bench at half time, the Lions were competitive in the second half and managed to hold the margin, winning the second half by a point.
Essendon also copped a smashing from Richmond in Dreamtime at the ‘G.
The Bombers played a small patch of the game at the start of the second quarter, but were otherwise dominated by the reigning premiers.
To make matters worse for Essendon, David Zaharakis suffered a broken collarbone in the first term and will miss at least six weeks.
In team news, Charlie Cameron (foot – season) and Mitch Robinson (toe – 3 weeks) will miss for the Lions.
Jarrod Berry, who was a late withdrawal (hamstring) last Sunday, returns to the side, Sam Mayes will also come in for this clash.
Allen Christensen has passed concussion protocols and Hugh McCluggage (calf) has been deemed fit to play.
For the Bombers, Mitch Brown, Josh Green, David Myers and Mason Redman are in.
Jayden Laverde and James Stewart have been omitted after last week’s loss, while Jordan Ridley (knee soreness – 1 week) and David Zaharakis (collarbone – 6 weeks) will miss with injury.
The last time these two teams played was in round 15 2017, Brisbane defeated Essendon by eight points at the MCG.
Lion Sam Mayes comes in to play his 100th game this week, while Bomber Michael Hurley will play game 150.
Prediction
Everyone’s saying it, because it’s true: this is a must win clash for the Bombers if they want to keep their top eight hopes alive.
With both teams desperate for a win it should be a tight contest, but Essendon have too much on the line, they’ll take the win here.
Essendon by 17 points.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 1:10pm AEST.