Essendon Round 5 review

Well that was unfortunate.

The Bombers were able to play an out-of-sorts Brisbane Lions back into form but it remains to be seen how profound the implications of last night’s match are in a disrupted 2021 season for the Bombers.

The Bombers played as well as a drenched dog, that is to say that they stunk.

Without further ado here are my take always from the Round 5 match between Essendon and Brisbane.

1. The third top-ten pick makes his debut
Starting off on a positive note, the Bombers were able to debut the last of their top ten draft picks from the 2020 draft in Zach Reid. Reid, a 202-centimetre key defender from the Gippsland, had a serviceable debut on a down night for the Bombers.

He was able to collect the ball ten times, however such was the pressure of Brisbane that he was harried and harassed resulting in a disposal efficiency of 40 per cent. However on a night when the ball entered the inside fifty 67 times for the rampant Lions, and the average disposal efficiency for the Bombers was 62 per cent, I believe that the contributions Reid made were positive and he will improve given the experience.

Fellow first year player Archie Perkins relished the experience at the coal face. He gathered the ball 20 times, tackled four times and played the best game of his short career.

Nikolas Cox on the other hand, was not suited to the torrential conditions and was comprehensively barred from impacting the contest in any consequential way, while it may be somewhat unfair to single him out this was a poor performance.

2. That was a drenching
Like a strange pathetic fallacy in film it felt like the rain was a metaphor for what was a dour performance from the Essendon Footy Club. When the ball was hitting the deck you could see the splashes on the television. The Lions were able to better respond to the brutal conditions as they played themselves back into form.

In particular, the Lions were able to build their victory on repeated inside fifties (67-41), and high quality inside fifty entries too as the Lions took far too many inside fifty marks for such a wet and waterlogged night (14 inside 50 marks-4 inside fifty marks).

While the Bombers were given the rub of the green (or pale blue) they were unable to parlay this into any period of dominance as the Lions led from start to finish.

What stood out to me as the viewer was the Bombers were never able to take clean possession of the ball, and on the rare occasion they were able to do so they panicked and sprayed the ball into the hands of a Lions player resulting in 107 intercept possessions for the Lions.

Part of this is attributable to the youth of the Bombers, but I believe this to be reductive, the Bombers’ game style does not lend itself to that climate as it relies primarily on skill by hand where as gaining territory by foot is the most important as was shown by the multiple spurious deliberate calls last night.

(Photo by Chris Hyde/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

3. Questions about Bombers big men
Cale Hooker has been a breath of fresh air in the forward line, kicking 16 goals to be equal fourth in the Coleman so far.

Since Sam Draper has gone down with a syndesmosis injury in round two the Bombers have been hamstrung, relying on Wright as their primary ruckman along with Cox providing relief.

This has resulted in Essendon consistently losing the clearances, and forcing defenders to be on the back foot.

When the Bombers are going to come up against the premier big men of the competition I believe unfortunately they will be found wanting. However, hope is not lost the Bombers have two players in the VFL who can ably provide assistance in the ruck in Andrew “totally not Aaron Francis” Phillips and Nick Bryan both of whom have shown optimistic signs over the past few games.

4. Injuries continue to mount
The death by a thousand cuts in modern footy is the injury toll. While this season it has been misfortune leading to the Bombers missing a third of their best 22 side, they are going to struggle to fill the void left by Jordan Ridley due to concussion.

With the new 12-day protocol unfortunately this means he will miss Anzac day adding to the already troublesome injury woes the Bombers have had this year. In positive news it means that Reid will almost certainly get another opportunity to show his stuff against the Magpies on what is the biggest stage for the Bombers this year.

In addition to that, Jayden Laverde and Dyson Heppell have both found confidence with their new role as backmen and Aaron “totally not Phillips” Francis has played his most consistent football in his career to date.

Final thoughts
We are effectively a quarter of the way through the season and the Bombers are one win from six matches. But I’m a glass half full kind of person, so I choose to look at the Bombers being six points from a 3-2 record. This year is a development year and the Bombers have shown enough in their play to justify persisting with Ben Rutten and his coaching staff.

I just hope the rabble rousers in the Bombers fan-base can be patient enough for Truck’s vision of the Bombers to come to fruition.

Round 5 best: (season aggregate in brackets)

1. Andy McGrath. (12).
2. Cale Hooker. (9).
3. Zach Merrett. (18).
4. Archie Perkins (3).
5. Mason Redman (7).
6. Nick Hind (7),

Leaderboard:
1. Zach Merrett. (18).
2. Andy McGrath. (12).
3. Anthony McDonald Tippungwuti. (10).