Bombers Thinking Finals?

As unlikely as it sounds, the “F” word is being spoken of when mentioning Essendon and it has nothing to do with Gordon Ramsay either.

On the back of the Bombers third win in a row in AFL Round 14 on Sunday afternoon in Perth against the Mark Harvey coached Fremantle, the Bombers now sit two games outside the AFL Top 8 and a string of ‘winnable’ games on the horizon, a far cry from 3 weeks ago where talk of wooden spoons was all the rage.

In a match marred by injuries to both sides, the Bombers held off a fast-finishing Fremantle to win by four points – 14.11 (95) to 13.13 (91) – to take home the precious four premiership points and move up to 12th on the AFL ladder with a 5-9 record.

In a close first term, the Bombers got off the blocks first with a Mark McVeigh snap goal 10 minutes in. Goals to Adam Ramanauskas and skipper Matthew Lloyd gave the Bombers a slender three point lead at the first break.

Fremantle came out firing at the start of the second term, booting five goals to one in the first 17 minutes to lead by 20 points with Rhys Palmer collecting ten disposals as Freo skipper Matthew Pavlich kicked three goals in the space of ten minutes.

In-form Bomber ruckman David Hille kept his team in the contest by scoring two goals and picking up 9 touches into time on of the term, with Hille’s second at the 29 minute mark cutting the margin to a point heading into the half time break.

After a tough opening to the second half, as Bomber defender Dustin Fletcher sat on the bench with a broken hand while Dockers Roger Hayden and Ryley Dunn were also sidelined suffering hamstring injuries, the home side looked to be having better of the play before young Bomber Leroy Jetta moved into the forward line and he assisted Scott Lucas and Sam Lonergan nab two late goals in the third term to give his side an 18 point advantage at the final change.

Pavlich kicked his fourth for the game within the opening minute of the final term before majors to Kyle Reimers and a snap from Andrew Lovett saw Essendon go four goals up and seemingly home. However Pavlich had other ideas with his fifth and sixth for the game and Chris Tarrant goaled with less than two minutes left on the clock, the margin was down to just four points.

Adam McPhee put his body on the line bumping Docker Byron Schammer out of a forward contest, allowing the Bombers to clear the ball out of the Dockers forward 50 and run out the game clock to record the victory.

Jobe Watson was the star on the stat sheet with 36 possession game while Mark McVeigh also had 36 touches, Hille (17 and 2 goals), Stanton (19 and 2 goals) and Andrew Lovett (22 and a goal) were also amongst the Bombers best.

Essendon coach Matthew Knights was not getting carried away with “finals” talk.

“It’s great to have a win and great to string three wins together consecutively and a real credit to our players,” Knights said after the match. “But even after today, we’re probably two games and percentage (out of the eight), so we’re a long way out. So we must work harder now to get better and execute the game style we want to play, keep going and developing players not only on the field but off the field, so that when we do get good, we stay good,”

Essendon now have a weeks break before returning to action on July 12 in AFL Round 15 against Brisbane at the Phone Dome.

Posted 29 June 08 in News Match Review