VelvetSledge
Moderator
- May 24, 2007
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- #1
ESSENDON BOMBERS
I would say we were taught another lesson by the Cats after our shocker first quarter against them earlier in the season, but generally, when you have a lesson, you learn from it. We clearly didn't.
The game was over in the first 15 minutes and we didn't get a look in since.
A pitiful, weak, heartless performance against a stronger, more experienced, bigger, well-drilled outfit.
There were few shining lights for the Dons on the night, with many glaring weak points standing out instead.
As soon as we come up against the Cats, you can mark it down as a loss.
There's something between the ears that creeps in whenever we play Geelong where we just convince ourselves that we don't have a chance, and it prevails every time.
This performance was made even worse when you consider that it was in our captain's 200th.
Shocker.
GEELONG CATS 18.14 122
def.
ESSENDON BOMBERS 7.3 45
BEST: Hobbs, Parish, Bryan, Heppell
GOALS: Stringer, Wright, Menzie, Snelling, Bryan, Langford, Guelfi
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WESTERN BULLDOGS
There was something poetic about seeing the Dogs fall to an annoying small forward in Papley, when their own one has pissed off numerous people in the past few years.
Tim English's AA form continued with a huge 60-hitout performance against the Swans, who went in without a recognized ruckman.
Aaron Naughton looks to be the key pillar for the Dogs with 3 goals, whilst Ugle-Hagan was restricted to just one.
Tom Liberatore has to be one of the most underrated players of the past 15 years and had another huge game last week.
The Dogs ended up winning the clearances 52-34, but still somehow ended up stuffing it.
SYDNEY SWANS 11.12 78
def.
WESTERN BULLDOGS 11.10 76
BEST: English, Liberatore, Bontempelli, Naughton, Richards, Treloar
GOALS: Naughton 3, Bontempelli 2, Liberatore, Vandermeer, Poulter, Weightman, Scott, Ugle-Hagan
ESSENDON EMERGENCIES: Nick Hind, Kaine Baldwin, Alwyn Davey Jnr, Jye Menzie
BULLDOGS EMERGENCIES: Bailey Williams, Rory Lobb, Jordon Sweet, Riley Garcia
ESSENDON OUTS: Hind (Sub), Menzie, Weideman (Both omit)
ESSENDON INS: Phillips, Cox
BULLDOGS OUTS: Williams (Omitted), Garcia (Sub), McNeil (Illness), O'Donnell, Darcy (Injured)
BULLDOGS INS: Smith, Khamis, Bruce, Baker
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Sub to be chosen from the emergency list one hour prior to bounce.
A very interesting evening at the selection meeting this week, with numerous woeful performances last week the talisman to a genuine shake-up. Brad Scott has been hesitant to make any wholesale changes to the team from week to week, citing consistency as a huge element in building the best footy department he can. This week, however, it seems as though there have to be some switch-ups.
With Sam Weideman's form simply not improving over the past couple of months and now running into 7 weeks straight without a goal, the call was finally made to get him out of the spotlight and into a solid training block so he can regain some touch and fall in love with footy again. Weid has taken the steps of deleting his Instagram account, which leads me to believe that he's seen the frankly disgusting abuse sent his way on social media, and simply removed himself from the ability to have it sent to him. If he is taking some time away for his mental health, then all of us wish him the absolute best. Form is temporary, and whilst he hasn't been getting the results on the scoreboard, he is an Essendon FC player and deserves all the respect we can give him.
Jye Menzie is an odd choice to be omitted considering he's been our best-performing small forward all year, but you can safely assume he will don the sub vest tonight, taking over from Nick Hind, who wore it last week. The massive ginger tank in Andrew Phillips returns after his one-game suspension for giving a love tap to Reilly O'Brien, and will form a ruck duo with Nick Bryan to take on the daunting task of AA-incumbent Tim English.
In a huge good news story, former Pick 8 in the 2020 draft, Nik Cox, returns after over a year out of AFL footy. Cox hasn't played since the last time we played the Dogs in Round 7 2022, and has showed some strong form in the VFL to make his way back to the seniors. I'm not sure if "risk" is the word I'd use, but it's a bold call from Brad Scott to bring him back after so little VFL game time. One would do well to remember, however, that his first year of footy (up to Round 11 or so, when he started to tire), was outstanding. Prodigal. Unicorn like. Whilst I don't expect that he will fall into that form right away, it would be handy to see him come in and use his bullet passing and evasiveness (for a 200cm utility, get out of it) to get a result tonight.
The Dogs made changes too but this is the Essendon board, it's Friday afternoon, and I couldn't give a stuff.
ROUND 7, 2022
Marvel Stadium
1/5/2022
WESTERN BULLDOGS 16.7 103
def.
ESSENDON BOMBERS 10.11 71
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BULLDOGS GOALS: McNeil 3, Wallis, Dunkley, Weightman, McComb 2, Bontempelli, Cordy, R. Smith, B. Smith, Vandermeer
ESSENDON GOALS: Wright 4, Cutler 2, Stringer, Draper, Guelfi, Baldwin
BULLDOGS BEST: Dunkley, B. Smith, Macrae, Bontempelli, Dale
ESSENDON BEST: Ridley, Parish, Redman, Martin
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CHANGES SINCE LAST TIME:
ESSENDON OUTS: Cutler, Draper, Reid, Baldwin, Shiel, Waterman
ESSENDON INS: Zerk-Thatcher, Langford, Snelling, Bryan, Phillips
BULLDOGS OUTS: Dunkley, McComb, O'Brien, Wallis, Martin, McNeil, R. Smith, Cordy, Schache, Williams
BULLDOGS INS: Bruce, Keath, Poulter, Baker, Ugle-Hagan, Scott, English, West, Khamis
Just. Win.
Essendon by 14.
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