VelvetSledge
Moderator
- May 24, 2007
- 17,467
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- Essendon
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- Liverpool FC, Melbourne Storm
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- #1
ESSENDON BOMBERS
It was somewhat overlooked throughout the week after all the pinching and stomping and other unsightly crap, but the Bombers came away with a solid win against the old enemy. Two wins in two weeks (three including the bye) against two of our fiercest rivals. Beautiful.
Dylan Clarke was again impressive, adding the scalp of Jaeger O’Meara to his tagging belt. While they shared 23 disposals each, the influence of O’Meara on the night was largely unsighted, and Clarke came away with the chocolates, plus a Rising Star nomination to boot.
Jake Stringer returned from injury with a brilliant two-goal showing, before appearing to be injured again later in the match with a lower leg injury. Scans showed no real damage, further proving that he is the epitome of man.
Dyson Heppell is still the most underrated captain in the comp. Another brilliant performance, and quickly switched his post-match interview to raise awareness of Scleroderma to the people watching at home. Humble, a true leader, and a true captain.
Cale Hooker and Michael Hurley continue to be one of the most understated and unheralded defensive duos in the league. They are rarely beaten, and the stat released during the week proves that, with Essendon conceding the fewest points since Round 4.
Adam Saad. Of the three major signings we made last year in Stringer, Smith, and Saad, Adam came with the smallest amount of fanfare. He has since become a fan favourite and is almost never beaten in a one on one. He contests every ball, runs with pace and aggression off half back and the wings, and now he’s adding goals to his bow. What a player.
Ben Stratton is a flog. Pinching Raz Fantasia all night to the point where his arm was completely covered in dark purple bruises, stomping on Shaun McKernan’s foot with his studs right down, and copped two weeks for his efforts. Deadset moron.
Kyle Langford is continuing to impress with his efforts each week. He’s running with supreme confidence now, and is hitting the scoreboard.
Conor McKenna, after an extremely up and down season, is starting to really come into his own. He played brilliantly last week, and was deserving of his plaudits.
We should have won that by a lot more. Hate to raise it, but the umpires gave some real cheap goals to the Hawkes right at the end that made it look a lot closer than it was.
ESSENDON BOMBERS 14.12 96 def. HAWTHORNE HAWKES 11.11 77
BEST: Merrett, Hooker, Heppell, Clarke, McKenna, Hurley
GOALS: Begley, Fantasia, Langford, Stringer 2, Bellchambers, Guelfi, McKernan, Saad, Parish, Merrett
INJURIES: Stringer (leg)
REPORTS: Nil
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WEST COAST EAGLES
The Eagles had the bye, but were completely flogged by a resurgent Sydney Swans outfit over in Sydney.
Lance Franklin and Tom Papley took apart the Eagles premiership-quality defence with five goals each, even with only one fit player on the bench.
Elliott Yeo and Shannon Hurn were sorely missed, while Josh Kennedy was the most productive of the West Coast forwards.
There isn’t much else to say, at least nothing that the West Coast fans would like.
Luke Shuey was the best performing Eagle on the night, and the Norm Smith medalist is still seriously underrated outside of Victoria.
SYDNEY SWANS 18.8 116 def. WEST COAST EAGLES 10.11 71
BEST: Shuey, Kennedy, Ryan, Sheed, Redden
GOALS: Kennedy 3, Ryan, Rioli 2, McGovern, Darling, Waterman
INJURIES: Nil
REPORTS: Nil
ESSENDON BOMBERS 14.12 96 def. HAWTHORNE HAWKES 11.11 77
BEST: Merrett, Hooker, Heppell, Clarke, McKenna, Hurley
GOALS: Begley, Fantasia, Langford, Stringer 2, Bellchambers, Guelfi, McKernan, Saad, Parish, Merrett
INJURIES: Stringer (leg)
REPORTS: Nil
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WEST COAST EAGLES
The Eagles had the bye, but were completely flogged by a resurgent Sydney Swans outfit over in Sydney.
Lance Franklin and Tom Papley took apart the Eagles premiership-quality defence with five goals each, even with only one fit player on the bench.
Elliott Yeo and Shannon Hurn were sorely missed, while Josh Kennedy was the most productive of the West Coast forwards.
There isn’t much else to say, at least nothing that the West Coast fans would like.
Luke Shuey was the best performing Eagle on the night, and the Norm Smith medalist is still seriously underrated outside of Victoria.
SYDNEY SWANS 18.8 116 def. WEST COAST EAGLES 10.11 71
BEST: Shuey, Kennedy, Ryan, Sheed, Redden
GOALS: Kennedy 3, Ryan, Rioli 2, McGovern, Darling, Waterman
INJURIES: Nil
REPORTS: Nil
ESSENDON EMERGENCIES
Aaron Francis, Mark Baguley, Zac Clarke, Ben McNiece
WEST COAST EMERGENCIES
Jake Waterman, Josh Rotham, Brendon Ah Chee, Josh Smith
------
ESSENDON INS: Mitch Brown
ESSENDON OUTS: Jake Stringer (Injury)
WEST COAST INS: Shannon Hurn, Elliot Yeo, Chris Masten, Oscar Allen, Jackson Nelson, Jarrod Cameron
WEST COAST OUTS: Nathan Vardy, Willie Rioli (Both suspended), Josh Rotham, Tom Cole, Jake Waterman, Josh Smith (All Omit)
DEBUT:
Jarrod Cameron, West Coast Eagles
Recruited from Swan Districts
MILESTONE:
Jack Redden, West Coast Eagles
200 GAMES
The Eagles have swung the axe in a big way, with four players in Tom Cole, Jake Waterman, Josh Smith, and Josh Rotham all being dropped to the WAFL after their huge loss a fortnight ago. Willie Rioli has been suspended for a dangerous tackle, and Nathan Vardy also suspended after knocking out Jackson Thurlow. The Eagles have an immense amount of experience coming into the side, with captain Shannon Hurn returning alongside Elliot Yeo, Chris Masten, Oscar Allen, Jackson Nelson, and debutant Jarrod Cameron. Cameron is the brother of Brisbane Lions livewire small forward Charlie Cameron.
ESSENDON BOMBERS – #42 – ADAM SAAD
As I said earlier on in the thread, it might just turn out that Saad is the most successful of our recruits from last year. While Smith won our Best and Fairest last year, this year is a complete write-off with knee injuries. Stringer is a brilliant forward and powerful midfielder, but has had his injury problems also. Saad hasn’t missed a game for us, and his ridiculous speed and effort off half back has seen him become a fan favourite. The crowd noticibly lifts when he gets the ball and runs with it, similar to how Walla does when he gets the ball free around the forward line. He is a quality, quality player, and getting him from Gold Coast for as little as we did was a master stroke from Dodododododododdoro and co. Brilliant stuff.
ESSENDON BOMBERS – #44 – TOM BELLCHAMBERS
Big Tommy is an enigma of a player. He’s slow as a wet week, but a seriously talented tap ruckman. He is a great shot at goal, a powerful tackler (if he catches someone), and always sticks up for his team mates when a scrap breaks out. Fiercely loyal and a true red and black man at this point, it’s hard to see him being budged out of the number one ruck role in any sense any time soon, unless injury gets to him again. At this stage, his body is holding up alright, which is brilliant. If it buggers up, we’ll be stuck with Zac Clarke.
WEST COAST EAGLES - #13 – LUKE SHUEY
Shuey is a jet. Seriously underrated in Victoria, the man who came second in the Rising Star to Dyson Heppell continues to impress as the premier midfielder in this premiership winning side. He is fast, strong, gutsy and powerful in the clearances, and very rarely makes mistakes in judgement within a game. Alongside Elliot Yeo and Jack Redden, Shuey is a prime candidate for another worthy accolade; notch number 3 on Dylan Clarke’s belt.
WEST COAST EAGLES - #4 – DOM SHEED
He’s just here because he ****** up Collingwood in the Grand Final, and it was great to see.
I realise I’ve gone way off track with this. It was supposed to be about the oppositions spuddiest player, but I really don’t think you could go past Ben Stratton and Jaidyn Stephenson this week. Two morons for two different reasons.
Stratton, for obvious reasons. Pinching Fantasia for an entire game. Right in front of umpires who didn’t do a thing to stop it. And then, purposely heading over to Shaun McKernan and stomping directly onto his foot, with full force, studs down. If it wasn’t for Jeff Kennett piping up with a classic racist quip, that would have been the dumbest thing coming out of Hawthorn this week. 2 weeks really doesn’t seem enough, and I think you’d find that most Hawk fans would agree with me.
And then there’s old mate Jaidyn Stephenson, who is at a club where a player, less than ten years ago, was banned for 14 matches and fined an insane dollar amount for a $10 bet. He then goes and lays multiple bets on his own team, in which he has a direct influence on the result. Naturally, the AFL is pissweak with it’s punishment, and gives him a ban of 22 games (12 suspended, righto), plus a $20K fine. All things considered, he should consider himself extremely lucky. Dickhead.
Two complete morons, and both paying the price.
Round 1 Nominee: Dylan Buckley, GWS
Round 2 Nominee: Dan Hannebery, St Kilda
Round 3 Nominee: Steven May's Groin, Melbourne
Round 4 Nominee: Mitch Robinson’s Fortnite Obsession, Brisbane
Round 5 Nominee: Ben Brown's limp-dicked diving, lol Norf
Round 6 Nominee: Daniel Wells' glass body, Collingwood
Round 7 Nominee: The BigFooty Swear Filter
Round 8 Nominee: Sydney's Football Department (This one didn't end well)
Round 9 Nominee: The AFL
Round 10 Nominee: The AFL again
Round 11 Nominee: Carlton's lack of perspective
Round 12: Bye
Round 13 Nominee: The AFL... Again
Round 14 Nominee: Ben Stratton and Jaidyn Stephenson
A very small rant this week. More of an announcement.
I’ve been writing these threads up for the past five years or so, and it’s been a labor of love. On average, each thread takes 4-5 hours to put together, including Photoshop work, researching, proof-reading, and convincing myself that my efforts result in something half-readable. I enjoyed it a lot, and perusing through everyone’s reactions and discussions was something I took great joy out of.
Recently, my priorities have changed.
As was the case when I stopped being a mod on this site, life simply gets in the way, and the things that matter the most start to separate.
As a few of you know, my baby girl is due to be born in a little over eight weeks. She is due to be born the day before we play Fremantle in Perth. To say I’m excited would be the understatement of the century – My wife and I were borderline convinced it wasn’t going to happen for us, but as we found out very late in 2018, never say never. That, and my career is finally starting to take off. I’m finding myself with less and less time to write these threads.
It’s a blessing and a curse, and as such, I’m going to have to stop creating the Game Day threads every week.
While it makes me sad to a degree, because these threads have been such a huge part of the footy season for me, priorities have changed.
I’ll keep putting them together until the end of the season, or until baby Sledge comes along, whatever comes first. Of course, I’ll still be on the forum, but as far as the fate of these big old GameDay threads, the days are numbered.
Thanks to everyone who’s read these big old threads throughout the years. Your kind words and appreciation have never gone without notice, and have made it easier to push through and get them done each week.
Only a couple of months left, let’s make the most of them.
Go Bombers!
ROUND 14, 2018
Optus Concrete Arena
21/6/2018
WEST COAST EAGLES 6.16 52
def. by
ESSENDON BOMBERS 12.8 80
---------
ESSENDON BEST: Merrett, Heppell, Goddard, Smith, Stringer, Saad
ESSENDON GOALS: Smith, Stringer 3, Bellchambers, Brown, Baguley, Langford, Guelfi, McDonald-Tipungwuti
WEST COAST BEST: Gaff, Redden, Hurn, Yeo
WEST COAST GOALS: Cripps 2, LeCras, Naitanui, Shuey, Rioli
---------
CHANGES SINCE THEN
ESSENDON OUTS: Goddard, Smith, Myers, Dea, Baguley, Stringer, Green
ESSENDON INS: Ambrose, Zaharakis, Laverde, Parish, Shiel, Clarke, Baguley
EAGLES OUTS: Lycett, Cole, LeCras, Naitanui, Rioli, McInnes, Waterman
EAGLES INS: Allen, Cameron, Hickey, Sheed, Darling, Kennedy, Petruccelle
MELBOURNE:
TV: Channel 7 (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOX Footy (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOXTEL Now (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), Kayo Sports (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST)
RADIO: Triple M, 3AW, ABC, SEN
MOBILE: AFL Live Official App with LIVE Pass (Unmetered on Telstra Mobile Network)
SYDNEY:
TV: 7mate (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOX Footy (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOXTEL Now (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), Kayo Sports (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST)
RADIO: -
MOBILE: AFL Live Official App with LIVE Pass (Unmetered on Telstra Mobile Network)
ADELAIDE:
TV: Channel 7 (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST), FOX Footy (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST), FOXTEL Now (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST), Kayo Sports (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST)
RADIO: ABC, Triple M, FIVEaa
MOBILE: AFL Live Official App with LIVE Pass (Unmetered on Telstra Mobile Network)
PERTH:
TV: 7mate (LIVE at 6.00pm AWST), FOX Footy (LIVE at 6.00pm AWST), FOXTEL Now (LIVE at 6.00pm AWST), Kayo Sports (LIVE at 6.00pm AWST)
RADIO: ABC, 6PR, Mix 94.5
MOBILE: AFL Live Official App with LIVE Pass (Unmetered on Telstra Mobile Network)
BRISBANE:
TV: 7mate (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOX Footy (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOXTEL Now (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), Kayo Sports (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST)
RADIO: -
MOBILE: AFL Live Official App with LIVE Pass (Unmetered on Telstra Mobile Network)
TASMANIA:
TV: Channel 7 (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOX Footy (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), FOXTEL Now (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST), Kayo Sports (LIVE at 8.00pm AEST)
RADIO: Triple M, ABC, AFL Nation
MOBILE: AFL Live Official App with LIVE Pass (Unmetered on Telstra Mobile Network)
DARWIN:
TV: Channel 7 (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST), FOX Footy (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST), FOXTEL Now (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST), Kayo Sports (LIVE at 7.30pm ACST)
RADIO: ABC, AFL Nation
MOBILE: AFL Live Official App with LIVE Pass (Unmetered on Telstra Mobile Network)
We find ourselves in a weird spot this week, where we’re going into a game with a small semblance of form. Two wins, which, while far from convincing, are leading us to a patch where we actually look like a solid footy side. The Bombers are playing like a side who knows that they can get into the finals, and now it’s up to them to duplicate the heroics from last year with a massive win away from home.
Go Bombers.
Bombers by 19.
