Round 15 - Western Bulldogs Match Review

Essendon’s September AFL Finals aspirations now teeter on the brink following a 33 point loss at the hands of the Western Bulldogs at the Phone Dome in AFL Round 15 on Saturday night.

The loss sees the Bombers fall out of the AFL Top 8 for the first time in six weeks and now sit 10th on the ladder with an 8-7 record and a tough next month on the agenda.

The result spoiled Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy’s league record-breaking 879th match as a player and coach and will likely intensify discussion about Sheedy’s future in the role.

Midway through the first quarter, the Bulldogs led by 26 points with Brad Johnson and Jason Akermanis ripping the Bombers apart, however as soon as the clock ticked into time-on, the Bombers decided to turn up to contest the match as Adam Ramanauskas booted his team’s first of goal of match at the 21-minute mark, before Scott Lucas and then Matthew Lloyd put a further dent in the Bulldogs lead. With 30 seconds remaining in the first term, Jay Nash goaled from 45 metres to put the Bombers remarkably in front by one point at the first break.

Johnson put the Bulldogs back in front early in the second quarter with his second of his five goals for the match, a lead they would never give up for the remainder of the match as a wasteful Essendon squandered opportunities in front of goal to finish the second term with 1.5 to the Bulldogs return of 5.4 which saw them go into the main break with a handy 22 point lead.

In a forgettable third term, both sides had plenty of opportunities to put their stamp on the game but ended up being a term marred with turnovers had little highlights, but the Bombers managed to chip into the Bulldogs half-time lead kicking four goals to three to reduce the margin to 15 points heading into the final term.

Lucas got the Bombers within 10 points with the opening goal of the final term and the match looked like it was going to go down to the wire. However that was as close as the Bombers would get for the term, as Johnson replied for the Bulldogs within a minute and Farren Ray extended the Bulldogs lead further with a goal that floated over the Bomber defenders heads.

Going into time-on, the margin was still 20 points to the Bulldogs advantage, but the Dogs put the hammer down with the next 3 goals to blow the margin out to 38 before Angus Monfries chipped in with the final goal for the game in a quarter which the Bulldogs slammed home 8 goals to the Bombers 5 in an entertaining term which by the time the final siren had sounded signaled that the Bombers had fallen out of the AFL Top 8.

Scott Lucas with four goals was the Bombers leading forward target with Jay Nash and Angus Monfries the only other multiple goal scorers with two each.

Damien Peverill finished the night with 29 touches, while Jay Nash had arguably his best game in his short AFL career with 22 disposals, six marks and seven inside 50s adding to his two goals. Jobe Watson, Jason Johnson and Angus Monfries were also amongst the Bombers best.

Scott Camporeale’s 250th AFL game ended like James Hird’s 250th AFL game last week, with him finishing on the bench with what looked to be a season ending knee injury.

Despite the loss and a tough draw ahead, Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy was still thinking about September action.

“We’re still in the ball park for the finals. It’s a huge game against Collingwood (next Saturday afternoon at the MCG in AFL Round 16). We need to play at our best and we will totally zone in on them this week.” Sheedy said. “We’ll be most likely bringing back (Mark) McVeigh and (Dustin) Fletcher. We need to inject more pace and improve our kicking skills, which let us down. But as I told the players, it’s a grand final for us already”.

Game Details
Ground	Dome
Home / Away	Home
Attendance	45,283
Umpires	Donlon, Allen, Wenn

Scores
	1 / 4	2 / 4	3 / 4	Full Time
Essendon	4.5	5.10	9.12	14.14.98
Western Bulldogs	4.4	9.8	12.9	20.11.131

Best Players
Essendon	Peverill, Watson, Nash, Monfries, Stanton, J. Johnson
Western Bulldogs	Cooney, Akermanis, Eagleton, Giansiracusa, Boyd, Hahn

Goals
Essendon	Lucas 4, Nash, Monfries 2, Ramanauskas, Lloyd, Stanton, Lovett-Murray, Michael, Lovett
Western Bulldogs	Johnson 5, Cooney 3, Eagleton, Murphy 2, Gilbee, Akermanis, Harbrow, Robbins, Everitt, Ray, Higgins, Hahn

Injuries and Reports
Injuries	Camporeale (knee)
Reports	Nil

The Team
B:	Nash	Hislop	Michael
HB:	M. Johnson	Lovett-Murray	Ramanauskas
C:	McPhee	Peverill	Camporeale
HF:	Slattery	Laycock	Welsh
F:	Lovett	Lloyd	Lucas
R:	Ryder	Stanton	Watson
INT:	Dyson	Hille	J. Johnson
	Monfries
EMG:	Bolton	Bradley	Heffernan

Posted 14 July 07 in Match Review News