Crows Scrape Past Gallant Bombers

Essendon almost posted one of the seasons biggest upsets coming within 5 points of Adelaide away at AAMI Stadium on Friday night in AFL Round 10.

The Bombers got off to a perfect start jumping to an early three goal lead with goals from Adam McPhee, Jason Winderlich and Mark McVeigh. The home side however was wasteful and had registered six straight behinds to open the contest before Ivan Maric nabbed the first for the Crows to cut the Bombers lead to 9 heading into the first break.

Jason Porplyzia scored first to begin the second term for the Crows and then Graham Johncock put the home side in front for the first time in the contest and it looked like the Bombers were on the way to being overrun, however the visiting Bombers held in their and continued to apply sustained pressure on the Crows as the lead changed four times during the second term before skipper Matthew Lloyd put the Bombers nose ahead at the half-time break with a dribble goal that saw his team head into the main break with a four point advantage on the scoreboard.

Goals to Angus Monfries and David Myers to open the second half saw the Bombers open a game high 15 point lead and murmurs of an unlikely victory were beginning to become a possible reality.

But that would be all the goal scoring the Bombers would achieve for the third quarter as the home side began to get on top, but fail to press home their dominance on the scoreboard as once again the home sides accuracy in front of goal would become a major talking point. The Crows kicked seven behinds in a row before Brett Burton plucked home two late goals to give the Crows a 10 point break heading into the final term after a 3.9 for the home side to 2.1 for the Bombers third term.

McPhee kicked his second for the night to open the goal tally for the final term to reduce the margin to three points. But try as hard as the Bombers could they could get no closer as the goal scoring see-sawed during the final term as every Bomber goal was quickly answered by a Crows goal.

McPhee nabbed his match high third goal midway through the last term, but Reilly answered for the Crows, then Sam Lonergan reduced the margin back to three again before the Crows shut down the contest and the siren blew giving the Crows the four points in unimpressive fashion while the record book showed the seventh straight loss for the Bombers.

Andrew Lovett finished with 22 possessions to be the major ball winner for the Bombers on the night while Jason Winderlich (21 touches and 2 goals), Brent Stanton and Bachar Houli (20 touches each) along with Adam McPhee, David Hille and youngster David Myers were among the Bombers best on the night.

After seven losses on the trot, things don’t get any easier next week as the season reaches the midway point with the Bombers set to meet ladder leader Hawthorn at the Phone Dome in AFL Round 11.

Posted 31 May 08 in News Match Review