A week ago, Essendon headed down the highway and into GMHBA Stadium high on confidence and sitting pretty in fifth on the ladder… and left with brains leaking from their ears having copped the mother of all right hooks from Geelong.
By comparison, their 41-point loss to the Western Bulldogs was nowhere near as comprehensive, and indeed the final margin doesn’t really do the game justice either. Blowing out late with some junk time Dogs goals, the Bombers matched them for disposals, dominated the first quarter as much as at any stage this season, and were within the width of the goalpost off a Peter Wright set shot from a single-figure margin early in the last quarter and with all the momentum.
But while all those positives might be true, good luck telling any Bombers supporter that this wasn’t their most frustrating performance under Brad Scott – and one that now leaves their season, with five rounds to play, on the precipice.
The stats don’t lie – 136 marks, 127 of them uncontested, is a staggering amount: the equal-fourth most of any team in a game this season, in fact, and second for the Dons themselves behind Dreamtime at the ‘G.
For that to lead to just seven goals from 49 inside 50s is a problem every bit as sizeable as the enormous clearance walloping they received after quarter time, winning just 15 to the Dogs’ 41 in the final three terms after leading 11-5 at one stage.
Brad Scott’s number one priority this season has been shoring up the Bombers behind the ball, and it has had the desired effect: with a backline of solid citizens (though Jordan Ridley is right on the cusp of being a proper star, and was magnificent before a final-quarter injury on Friday night) they no longer leak goals from turnovers quite as frequently as they did under Ben Rutten, or even John Worsfold.
There were several times in the first quarter I noticed an errant Bomber kick or handball miss a target in their defensive half, but where 12 months ago that would have almost certainly coughed up a goal, this time the Bulldogs looked up to see at least three Bombers, usually Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Ridley and one of Andrew McGrath and Mason Redman, already perfectly set up behind the ball and guarding dangerous space.
Essendon players react to their loss to the Western Bulldogs. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Then, when on attack, the Bombers regularly look to switch to find a way through teams: that’s a big reason why their mark numbers are so high. And you can tell everything about the way they played with a single glance at which Dons took the most of them against the Bulldogs – 16 to Jake Kelly, 15 to Jayden Laverde, 14 to Ridley, 10 to Zerk-Thatcher and McGrath, nine to Redman, nine to Heppell.
15 of those, to be sure, were intercept marks, with the Bombers and Ridley especially ruling the skies throughout the contest: Ridley’s ability to frequently outmark a noted aerialist in Aaron Naughton right up until his last-quarter injury a performance worthy of Darcy Moore or Steven May.
But the problem for the Dons wasn’t winning the ball back: it was what they did next with it. There’s no other way to describe it – Essendon were simply too dour for their own good.
Once they had the ball, seemingly every Bomber’s first instinct was to look sideways, or 15 metres forward at the most, for a chip pass and an uncontested mark. That’s how all their backmen had the ball in their hands so frequently.
To give credit to Luke Beveridge, he set the Dogs up perfectly to guard the corridor, and ensure all but the most incremental of gains was fraught with risk.
Too often, the Bombers weren’t brave enough to take it on – the one time they were almost forced to do so, with ruckman Nick Bryan hacking forward after getting sold up the creek by a Ridley handball, ended up setting up a goal.
Inevitably, the Bombers, after a minute of chipping the ball around at half-back looking for a way through, would be forced into a long, hopeful kick up the line, far from their forte especially with Sam Draper still absent. And with just three contested marks in their attacking half for the evening – they’d double that number for contested intercept grabs alone – they weren’t able to exert the same aerial dominance in positions where it counted.
I’ve written in the past this year about how the Dons try to avoid stoppages as much as they can, and after catching the Dogs on the hop in the first quarter, especially out of the centre, it was clear why. Tom Liberatore’s clean hands and ball-winning nous at the coalface was simply unmatched by any Bomber: though Darcy Parish would finish with 11 clearances to the Dog’s 12, he’d have half the contested possessions, showcasing the difference between the pair for the proper hard ball.
Whether Liberatore can take three Brownlow votes off Marcus Bontempelli or not won’t matter to that pair, easily the best two players on the ground.
With the former distributing at the bottom of packs, the Dogs skipper ran his own race on the outside: while he’d have just two tackles, a season-low, he’d roam free with devastating effect, recording a game-high 647 metres gained, driving the ball inside 50 eight times and kicking two ultra-classy goals just for good measure.
Plus an intercept mark right on the three-quarter time siren backing back into a pack: how many of the game’s top echelon of midfielders are even capable of doing something like that?
Tangent aside, the stodgy way the Bombers played was manna from heaven for the Dogs, the easiest team over the last two months in the AFL to move the ball from defensive 50 to attacking 50.
It’s an indictment on Essendon’s slow cautiousness that they’d launch 25 possession chains from their D50 in the first three quarters, and convert it to just three inside 50s and fail to score from any of them.
This is a Bulldogs team that for 18 months has been vulnerable to teams moving the ball quickly and with purpose towards their threadbare defence: hell, the Bombers took 20 seconds to score the first goal of the night by doing exactly that.
Other than the odd centre bounce, that’s the most pressure the Dogs’ backs found themselves under all evening, with Josh Bruce’s task standing Peter Wright made a hell of a lot easier by having four teammates around him to spoil at nearly all times.
The Dons haven’t been as dour as this all season long, so credit must be given to the Bulldogs for refusing to make things easy for them. But it was baffling to watch a team go at 80.8 per cent disposal efficiency throughout an evening by accumulating the lowest-risk passes possible, and with every one allowing the Dogs’ defensive press to tighten like a Chinese finger trap.
Effectively, the most glaring example of how they SHOULD have played was in this passage of play by the Bulldogs themselves.
The Dons’ first goal from a defensive transition – the area the Dogs are the worst in the league at stopping – came in the first minute of the final term, when Nick Hind broke clear at half-back, exploded with a running bounce, and opened the field up further ahead.
The Dons would fluff the kick inside 50, but the loose ball would create pressure for the Dogs, Caleb Poulter caught holding the ball, Essendon taking the advantage and setting up the simplest of Matt Guelfi goals from the square. It’s how the Bombers should have played this match from the outset – and it’d be the last time we’d see it all night.
It was a performance to remind everyone – myself included – that this is an Essendon team still building, with its best footy ahead of it.
I wrote after their win over Adelaide in Round 17 that they could, maybe, win the premiership this year, which I’ve got to now admit was far too forward. There’s promise there of a bright future, and for the first year under new management they’re ahead of schedule, but something would have to radically change for them to do any damage even if they do make it to September from here.
Scott’s game style has had its fair share of triumphs this year – most obviously in their stirring finish against Port Adelaide, when their army of interceptors behind the ball kept the Power trapped inside their own defensive half with no escape for half the last quarter before they at last cracked.
But for all the exciting signs they’ve shown at times this year, a balance still needs to be struck between the Dons’ desire to keep their defence sturdy and the attacking flair that used to be this team’s one wood – especially against teams like the Dogs, and unlike the Crows a few weeks ago, that will look to take pace out of the game.
Until they do, the Bombers will remain a tease, just as they’ve been for 18 years. And the worst thing is, they won’t even be entertaining for their fans to watch anymore.
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