Round 17 1995, Essendon vs. Fremantle

Game Statistics


ESSENDON.........6.1 10.2 16.3 21.9(135)
FREMANTLE........3.3  7.4  9.8 13.9 (87)

Goals:

ESSENDON: James Hird 5, Salmon 4, Cummings 3, Denham, Cockatoo-Collins 2, Somerville, Misiti, Fletcher, Lewfatt, Young 1.
FREMANTLE: Abraham 4, Dhurrkay 3, Mann 2, Retzlaff, White, Callaghan, Merillo 1.

Crowd:

29,102 at the MCG

Comment:

From the standard of game, and standard of opposition, you may be confused into thinking that Essendon is actually playing its preseason practice matches for next year. But not so, we still have six rounds to go, and a lot of work to do. The Fremantle side on paper didn't look like troubling Essendon, but they were looking for their first win at the MCG, and should have been fired up. Speaking of fired up, the cannon sounded loud (very loud) and clear to signal the start of the game. I've never heard so many people laugh at once at a game of footy. But it must have signalled to the Dons, and in particular Paul Salmon to get going, because in the first few seconds, Salmon had lead out and got the ball while people were still waiting for the smoke from the cannon to disappear. And everyone was still laughing, and perhaps Paul Salmon included, because he kicked a shocker only registering a behind. So that was the start of the game, a bang and an anti-climax all rolled into one!

As we did against Fitzroy, our players dominated, but due to the unique style of the Dockers, a variation on the possession game that the Bombers play, the amount of possessions were about equal to both sides early on. The standard of the game was very poor, with numerous skill errors (in the end mainly by the Dockers). An example of this was when the Dockers kicked it out on the full, we kicked it back in again, only to go out on the full, then from the Docker's resulting free kick, they once again put it out on the full. Now in fairness to the players, that was a strong and tricky wind blowing out there, but really, three out on the full in a row is a bit much.

Not wanting to sound repetitive, or whinge as much as the Richmond fans, but a word must be said about the umpires again, this time I have a name! Scroop. Oh dear. The best thing he did all day was mark the ball and handball it to his team mate (a Docker of course). Yes, you read correctly, he marked the ball - a first for an umpire. Anyway, 'nuff said about that, I think from now on it will be an unstated premise of any reports I give that the umpiring was bad.

Now to the positives of the game. Peter Somerville. This guy is the most improved player at Essendon this year. Today he once again dominated in the ruck, and took heaps of marks around the ground, and even kicked a goal. His great form this year has really kept us going with the problems that Salmon and Alessio have had. In my opinion he was easily the best on the ground. James Hird. His run of top form continues, with three weeks of magnificent football by this player. His game was summed up in the third quarter, when the Dockers had kicked two goals in a row and got within three points, Jimmy knocked the ball to his advantage and from thirty-five out kicked a goal off the ground to steady the shakey Essendon ship. He ended up with five, and brought up his one-hundredth AFL goal. Good work Jimmy. It was also good to see the Cockie play out another good game, and Sean Denham continues to be a tireless worker around the packs, which could see him rank highly at the Best and Fairest this year.

It was also a game with a sprinkling of controversy. Scott Watters was injured during the pre-game warm-up, and subsequently couldn't play. The Dockers wanted to replace him in the side with an emergency player, and asked the umpires if they could do that. Apparently the emergency umpire indicated that they could change their team right up to the first bounce, as long as the umpire's team sheets were correct. So as it turned out they had four players on the interchange bench, a fact Sheedy was quick to point out after the game. He even called for the Dockers points (all 87 of them) to be disallowed, giving Essendon a 135 to nil victory (now we'd all like that wouldn't we?). It will be interesting to see if any more comes of the incident, but surely Melbourne wouldn't be happy, after they had player injured during the warm-up last week, who then sat on the bench for the whole game without a replacement.

This game was not up to the high standard that one expects when watching the Dons this year. But, this is not all bad. Firstly most teams do not play extremely high-quality football against teams that are very low on the ladder, and it is often heard that the lower team's play will affect how top teams are able to play. And more importantly, there were four players in the reserves this week (who won comfortably against Collingwood) who are likely to be recalled next week. Stephen Alessio, Bomber Thompson, Mark Harvey and Ricky Olarenshaw all played the full reserves game, and each played well. Alessio dominated in the ruck (from memory the ruck hit-outs were 45 to 15 in our favour) and around the ground; Harvey and Thompson both played well on the half-back line; and Olarenshaw played in the forward pocket, half forward, and in other positions and played well in each one. It is the right time of the year to have nearly a full list of players to pick from, and we will need to improve if we are to win against Melbourne and Collingwood in the following weeks. - Brad

Votes:

Strangely enough I agreed with Tom Hafey and the votes he gave for today's game (and yes, I had already made up my mind before I heard what he had to say about the game).

3 - Peter Somerville
Essendon's big improver this year. His ruck work has been excellent and today he was at his best. It always helps to have first chance at the football, and this is certainly what Somerville is giving us at the moment.

2 - James Hird
Another great game from Jimmy, kicking five goals, and creating most of his play from absolutely nothing. He marks it himself, steals it off the opposition or kicks it off the ground, each way you look at it a fantastic performance.

1 - Sean Denham
Working in conjunction with Somerville, Denham was able to get heaps of possessions (I don't know how many as I haven't seen the stats yet) and kick a couple of goals for the game. He is one of the most consistent players at Essendon at the moment.

The Statistics for Round 17:

Possessions    Kicks          Handballs      Marks
DENHAM      31 DENHAM      15 DENHAM      16 SOMERVILLE   8
MERCURI     28 MERCURI     14 MERCURI     14 MERCURI      8
LONG        24 LONG        14 LONG        10 YOUNG        7
WANGANEEN   21 SOMERVILLE  13 COCKATOO-CO  9 COCKATOO-CO  7
SOMERVILLE  21 WANGANEEN   12 WANGANEEN    9 HIRD         6
COCKATOO-CO 20 DARCY       11 MISITI       8 DARCY        5
YOUNG       17 COCKATOO-CO 11 SOMERVILLE   8 DENHAM       5
CALTHORPE   17 HIRD        10 CALTHORPE    7 SALMON       4
HARDWICK    14 O'DONNELL   10 HARDWICK     7 LONG         3
HIRD        14 YOUNG       10 YOUNG        7 FLETCHER     3

Standing after Round 17:

In fourth spot again, stuck half a game behind Richmond, and a game ahead of the WCE. North and Richmond losing were bonuses for us, but the way things are going it may look like third spot is as high as we can finish. But this is football, and anything is possible. As promised, my predictions for the final eight will be coming (and it seems to be getting easier to pick week by week, with Collingwood, Hawthorn and Adelaide all losing this weekend). The ladder is as follows:

---------------P--W--L-D--For-Agst---%--Pts

Carlton.......17 15  2 0 1831 1285 142.49 60
Geelong.......17 13  4 0 1993 1465 136.04 52
Richmond......17 12  4 1 1582 1477 107.12 50
Essendon......17 11  4 2 1946 1457 133.56 48
West Coast....17 11  6 0 1539 1306 117.84 44
Nth Melb......17 10  7 0 1675 1578 106.15 40
Footscray.....17  9  7 1 1432 1532  93.47 38
Melbourne.....17  9  8 0 1528 1381 110.64 36
Hawthorn......17  7 10 0 1434 1406 101.99 28
Collingwood...17  6  9 2 1579 1569 100.64 28
Adelaide......17  7 10 0 1284 1562  82.20 28
Brisbane......17  6 11 0 1521 1755  86.67 24
Sydney........17  5 12 0 1640 1788  91.72 20
Fremantle.....17  5 12 0 1534 1716  89.39 20
St. Kilda.....17  5 12 0 1317 1744  75.52 20
Fitzroy.......17  2 15 0 1253 2067  60.62  8

Next Week:

We play Melbourne next week, a game that has become very important for both teams. If we are to still have a chance at second spot, we need to win all of our remaining games; and for Melbourne they need to win just to stay in the top eight. History says that Melbourne always play well against the Dons, and hopefully Essendon will heed this warning and come out firing. The match committee has a nearly full list to choose from this week, so competition between players will be ferocious for a spot in the senior team.
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