Round 19 - Fremantle Match Review

Outgoing Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy has conceded that his 27 year reign will end without a farewell AFL Finals appearance after the Bombers suffered their second successive 63 point loss, this time a 63 point drubbing at the hands of the Mark Harvey coached Fremantle at Subiaco Oval in AFL Round 19.

The loss saw the Bombers slip down to 13th on the AFL ladder, still only two points outside the AFL top 8, but the Bombers percentage once again took a major hit with their second 10 goals loss in as many weeks.

“I doubt (we can make) it (the finals). Today might have made it very difficult,” Sheedy said. “We have to win our next three matches and then we have a tough game over here obviously with West Coast. But the way Carlton are playing and Richmond won on the weekend, all of a sudden we will be lucky to get two.”

“If we can win 11 games and lose 11 … and get to about 99 per cent or something, that is about the best even year we could have.” Sheedy added. “We wanted to make the finals, and after winning three games last year we have won nine, so we have improved 200 per cent. But we have not gone far enough up the ladder because it is such a close, tight sort of season.”

The Bombers had the chance to take control early in the game in the first quarter, but inaccurate kicking (4.7 at quarter-time) cost them dearly with skipper Matthew Lloyd, Jay Nash, Henry Slattery and Angus Monfries all missing chances they should have capitalised on.

Combined with ill discipline as two of the Dockers’ five first term majors came from 50m penalties awarded for verbally abusing the umpires, it enabled the home side to take a one point lead heading into the first break.

Docker bad boy Jeff Farmer eluded his opponent Dustin Fletcher seconds into the start of the second term as Fremantle went on an unanswered run of six goals in a row, with Freo skipper Matthew Pavlich getting three of them, to seemingly break the match open heading into time-on of the second term leading by over five goals.

Lloyd however kicked his third goal for the opening have, Scott Gumbleton kicked the first goal of his young AFL career and Scott Lucas added his first for the day and the Bombers were suddenly within 12 points at the main break.

But that would be as close as they would come as the Dockers would take control in the third term, limiting the Bombers to only one scoring opportunity (Lloyd’s fourth goal for the game) while the Dockers added four goals to stretch the lead out to 36 points heading into the final term.

Was more of the same in the final term as Fremantle finished the match off strongly, with seven goals to three in the final quarter to run away comfortable 63-point win and condemn the Bombers to a long and dismal flight home.

Dockers skipper Matthew Pavlich finished with six goals, 30 possessions and 16 marks, while Jeff Farmer, Chris Tarrant and Peter Bell added three each for the winning side. With Paul Hasleby (35 possessions) and Daniel Gilmore (31 possession) dominating the Bombers midfield.

For the Bombers, defender Dustin Fletcher finished with 26 possessions and skipper Matthew Lloyd kicked five goals. Nathan Lovett-Murray, Jason Winderlich, Angus Monfries and Jobe Watson all were solid contributors.

Essendon plays Carlton next Saturday at the MCG in AFL Round 20.

Game Details
Ground	Subiaco
Home / Away	Away
Attendance	38,274
Umpires	Stevic, Grun, Goldspink

Scores
	1 / 4	2 / 4	3 / 4	Full Time
Essendon	4.7	7.10	8.10	11.11.77
Fremantle	5.2	10.4	14.10	21.14.140

Best Players
Essendon	Fletcher, Lloyd, Lovett-Murray, Monfries, Winderlich
Fremantle	Pavlich, Bell, Hasleby, Gilmore, Solomon, Mundy

Goals
Essendon	Lloyd 5, Gumbleton 2, Lovett, Monfries, Lucas, Hille
Fremantle	Pavlich 6, Farmer, Bell, Tarrant 3, Solomon 2, Warnock, Gilmore, J. Carr, McPharlin

Injuries and Reports
Injuries	Nil
Reports	Nil

The Team
B:	Fletcher	Ryder	Lovett-Murray
HB:	McPhee	Michael	Reimers
C:	Slattery	McVeigh	Monfries
HF:	Lucas	Gumbleton	Lovett
F:	Nash	Lloyd	Welsh
R:	Laycock	Stanton	Winderlich
INT:	Dyson	Hille	Peverill
	Watson
EMG:	Camporeale	Johns	Ramanauskas

Posted 12 August 07 in Match Review News