Round 11 - West Coast Match Review

Essendon produced a remarkable second half performance to overcome a 36 point deficit early in the second term and to defeat reigning AFL Premier West Coast by one point at the Phone Dome in AFL Round 11.

The Bombers added 9.3 to 4.2 in the second half to claim the second scalp of the two 2006 AFL Grand Finalists by a solitary point winning margin in the space of two weeks and stretch their winning streak to four matches on end.

The victory strengthens the Bombers AFL Finals aspirations heading into the second half of the season with a solid 7-4 record and the likely prospect of only needing to win 4 (or possibly 5) of the remaining 11 matches to book a September berth and in the process produce a stunning turnaround from their dismal 3 win, 15th placed 2006 season.

After getting pumped by the Weagles in the first quarter, giving up the first four goals of the game and trailing by 29 points at quarter-time (a figure that flattered the Bombers at the time), it looked like being a long night with a serious shellacking on the cards.

The Bombers however began to show signs of life in the second quarter with the opening goal of the term to Scott Camporeale from a ruck assist by Jason Laycock. That goal was quickly balanced out by the Weagles as Matt Rosa and Brent Staker stretched the margin out to a match high 36.

Camporeale, skipper Matthew Lloyd and Laycock managed a three goal run for the Bombers to cut the game back to a three goal game, but the Weagles added two late goals to restore the lead to a comfortable 30 points at the main break.

Three goals to Lloyd and Scott Lucas saw that margin trimmed to just 11 points eight minutes into the third quarter, before the Weagles steadied with the next two, the Bombers maintained their new found momentum with the next three goals, finished off by Angus Monfries bending his kick through the big sticks to reduce the margin to a mere four points. West Coast however steadied late in the third term with Mitch Morton converting from outside 50 metres and the three-quarter-time lead was 11 points, as the Bombers had outscored the reigning premier six goals to three during the term.

Jason Winderlich produced the opening goal of the final term after marking unguarded inside 50 and Lucas followed course with his fourth and fifth goals of the night and the Bombers had hit the front for the first time in the match six minutes into the last quarter.

Chris Judd pulled the Weagles back within a point six minutes later and from that point on the match turned into a gripping contest with both sides out on their feet trying to snatch the winning goal.

As the match went into time-on for the final time Weagle Rowan Jones tied up the scores with a long shot that went through for a behind and it took until two minutes remaining before another score was produced as ruckman David Hille put the Bombers ahead when he kicked a point from a set shot 45 metres out.

Taking the ball from the ensuing kick-in, the Weagles pushed forward to try and score the game winning goal and the ball remained camped inside the Weagle forwardline.

James Hird repelled one West Coast attack by finding the boundary line, then Dustin Fletcher spoiled a high ball to kill another scoring opportunity, Fletcher’s hitout just going to the right side of the behind post meaning another boundary throw-in which would be the final act of the match as when the ball was returned to play the siren sounded and the Phone Dome went ballistic stamping one of the Bombers best wins since the early days of this decade.

“It was a great win no doubt about that. To come back from 36 points down against a top side at the moment, it’s a really heartening win for this group of boys I can assure you, We showed a lot of character tonight. It’s one of the better wins after the year we had last year.” Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy said after the game. “It’s a fierce contest. It’s one on one a lot of the night but early doors it wasn’t and that’s when they got away from us. And we had to tie up the game. We started to do things right after 15 minutes, but gee whiz, we were in a mess.”

Veteran James Hird once again produced a turn-back-the-clock best-on-ground performance with 32 possessions. Damian Peverill (30), Dustin Fletcher (27) and Jason Winderlich (22) also were major contributors on the night.

After victories of the two 2006 AFL Grand Finalists, things do not get any easier next week with a trip to Adelaide and a Sunday twilight matchup with Port Adelaide in AFL Round 12 before the mid-season break.

Game Details
Ground	Dome
Home / Away	Home
Attendance	48,913
Umpires	Vozzo, Kennedy, Nicholls

Scores
	1 / 4	2 / 4	3 / 4	Full Time
Essendon	1.0	6.2	12.4	15.5.95
West Coast	5.5	10.8	13.9	14.10.94

Best Players
Essendon	Hird, Fletcher, Lucas, Winderlich, Hille, Slattery
West Coast	Priddis, Rosa, Stenglein, Judd, B. Jones, Cox

Goals
Essendon	Lucas 5, Lloyd 3, Camporeale, Laycock 2, Davey, Monfries, Winderlich
West Coast	Staker 3, Lynch 2, Brown, Hunter, Hurn, Judd, LeCras, Morton, Priddis, Rosa, Seaby

Injuries and Reports
Injuries	Stanton (ankle)
Reports	Nil

The Team
B:	McVeigh	Michael	Bolton
HB:	M. Johnson	Ryder	Fletcher
C:	Peverill	Watson	McPhee
HF:	Welsh	Lucas	Hird
F:	J. Johnson	Lloyd	Davey
R:	Hille	Stanton	Winderlich
INT:	Camporeale	Laycock	Monfries
	Slattery
EMG:	Cole	Johns	Nash

Posted 8 June 07 in Match Review News