Round 4 - St. Kilda Match Review

It has taken only four weeks for the Bombers to match their entire 2006 win tally as they notched up their third win of the 2007 AFL Season with a 31 point victory over St. Kilda at the Phone Dome in AFL Round 4.

Brent Stanton finished with 33 possessions while Damien “Sex God” Peverill was only one behind with 32 touches of his own as he had the better of Saints star Nick Dal Santo on the day. Skipper Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas each had three goals a piece as the Bombers setup their victory with a six goal to two second quarter.

The Saints began the match stronger and had the chance to build a handy early buffer but could only produce an inaccurate 2.4 return for the opening term with Lucas scoring the Bombers only goal for the quarter after a mark and goal from the boundary line. Despite the Saints dominance of the opening term, they held only an 8 point lead at the first change.

Patrick Ryder drifted down from his defensive position give the Bombers the opening goal of the second quarter and after Alwyn Davey goaled from a free, the Bombers had the lead for the first time in the match. Gutterscum Stephen Milne snatched the lead back for the Saints with the first of his three goals for the game before the Bombers began a four goal run with Lucas and Lloyd prominent, to head into the half time break with a handy 15 point lead.

15 points was as close as the Saints would get for the rest of the match however despite the efforts of Milne and Nick Riewoldt. After Bomber defender Dustin Fletcher bombed a 70 metre torpedo goal, the Bombers had established a four goal break and had the momentum going into the final term with a 23 point lead.

Alwyn Davey setup the Bombers opening goal for the final term with a rundown tackle of James Gwilt as Lloyd picked up the crumbs to boot his third goal. Minutes later Lucas added his third for the day and soon after Angus Monfries kicked a running goal from 50 metres out and the lead was suddenly six goals and the match was over. Stanton added another at the 13 minute mark to extend the lead to 41 before ugly football took over as the Bombers ran down the clock while the Saints picked up some cheap late goals when it was all too late.

After the match Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy said his team was slowly winning back respect after the past few dismal years.

“We’ve got to claw our way back into the land of respect and we’ve got to make sure … we will keep looking for players that play that way,” Sheedy said.

Sheedy also praised the efforts of Ryder and Davey.

“We lost a lot of games with Paddy Ryder being played last year, but we haven’t lost many with him being played this year,” he said.

The Bombers now only have four days to prepare for the ANZAC Day clash against Collingwood at the MCG in AFL Round 5 and have injury clouds over ruckman David Hille (chest) and Leroy Jetta (groin).

Posted 21 April 07 in News