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.
Max Mayer
Roar Guru
Awful game not helped by some inconsistent umpiring. Essendon put out an inexperienced side, Heppell gets bulldozed out of the game in the second quarter and we still never looked like we were ever a good chance of kicking a set shot, let alone winning the game. Long season remains for Lions fans.
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Bombers bounce back The Essendon Bombers have defeated the Brisbane Lions by 22 points at the Gabba on Sunday afternoon. After a poor loss to Richmond last Saturday night, Essendon bounced back on a warm day in Brisbane, running out 4 goal winners in the end. Kept a tight contest by some inaccurate goal kicking, the Bombers looked the better team on transition and threatened to kick away in the third quarter. In the second term, Dyson Heppell ran into a brick wall in Luke Hodge and came off second best, leaving the ground with the blood-rule and not returning due to concussion. Before this collision Heppell had kicked two goals from nine disposals, and got his team going early in the contest. The game was marred by a total 26 behinds kicked between the two teams, many of these fairly simple set-shot opportunities. Both teams made the easy look difficult, but the difficult look easy; a dribble shot from the boundary by Mitch Brown the best goal for the day. Mason Redman played his first AFL game since his debut in 2016 and relished the opportunity, gathering 24 disposals and notching up his first win from four games in the red and black. Jake Stringer (22 disposals, 3 goals, 9 tackles) and Zach Merrett (29 disposals, 8 tackles) stepped up in the absence of their skipper. Harris Andrews was brilliant down back for the Lions, picking up 24 disposals, 12 marks and 20 spoils. Dayne Zorko (20 disposals, 2 goals, 8 tackles) and Stefan Martin (22 disposals, 25 hitouts, 1 goal) battled all day for the Lions, but couldn’t get their team across the line. Alex Witherden went down, clutching at his knee, but returned to the ground and finished with 29 disposals. Dyson Heppell (concussion) and Devon Smith (right calf) are the concerns for Essendon coming out of this win, but should be okay off the ten day break. Both teams have the bye next weekend, before Brisbane host the GWS Giants at the Gabba and Essendon travel to Perth for a clash with West Coast in round 14. Final Score Brisbane 8.14 (62) Essendon 12.12 (84)
Paul D
Roar Guru
Couldn't make out anything on the replay screens at the ground, absolute waste of time Didn't really care whether it was a goal or not, but the review process in this instance was wasteful
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Agree. Surely in this instance you should trust the umpire's call, why do they need to go to the score review?
Craig
Guest
I’m a bombers fan and it was the wrong call.
Karma Miranda
Guest
Baffling. Beam's hand clearly went back as the ball went past. Cannot fathom why this was reviewed in the first place, or then overturned as the vision seemed to confirm the on-field decision. Agree with the Commentary team, if they can't get simple ones like this right, then it needs to be scrapped.
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Thanks for tuning in Roarer's, I'll post a match report shortly. The rest of the round: We've got Fremantle v Adelaide starting in just under an hour (4:40pm AEST) and we'll finish round 12 with Melbourne v Collingwood from 3:20pm AEST tomorrow - Big Freeze 4 at the MCG.
Rissole
Guest
Happy to get a goal but definitely the wrong decision. As the ball was been taken to the middle they showed another angle which showed it was definitely touched. Surely it was just too embarrassing to overturn the overturned decision.
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Bombers bounce back The Essendon Bombers have defeated the Brisbane Lions by 22 points at the Gabba. Final Score Brisbane 8.14 (62) Essendon 12.12 (84)
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
FULL TIME Q4 0' - BEHIND LIONS After the siren, Christensen lines up from outside 50. A behind the result. Inaccurate goal kicking day, but nonetheless an important win for Essendon. Brisbane 62 Essendon 84
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Q4 0' - GOAL LIONS Zorko given a free, shoots the goal. 6 seconds on the clock. Brisbane 61 Essendon 84
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Q4 1' Essendon injury: Devon Smith off with his right calf being iced. Brisbane 55 Essendon 84
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Thoughts on this score review call Roarer's?
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Q4 2' - GOAL BOMBERS Stringer goes for a snap, umpire called touch off the boot. He sends it upstairs for a review, should be umpires call, but it's overturned. Goal to Stringer. Vision not conclusive enough to overturn, surely! Brisbane 55 Essendon 84
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Q4 3' - GOAL BOMBERS Guelfi seals it for the Bombers today. He gathered the ball on the 50 arc and took a couple strides before kicking across his body. Brisbane 55 Essendon 78
Craig
Guest
The two colonies, green and brown should never don the red and black again.
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Q4 3' - BEHIND LIONS A rushed kick from Zorko finds Cutler, who misses to the left from 25 out. Three misses for him today. Fox commentators a bit lost for words, as am I. Shocking miss from only a slight angle. Brisbane 55 Essendon 72
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Hoping for a lions comeback , not likely now .
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Q4 5' - BEHIND BOMBERS Brown took a nice grab but can't kick straight. Goal kicking painful to watch today. Brisbane 54 Essendon 72
Sarah Wildy
Roar Guru
Q4 7' - GOAL LIONS Contest from Beams, ball gets out, McInerney plucks the ball in the goal square. He faded in behind Berry and took the grab. He thankfully doesn't miss from the top of the goal square. Brisbane 54 Essendon 71