Round 5 1995, Essendon vs. St Kilda

Game Statistics


ESSENDON..........7.5 14.8 21.8 24.10 (154)
ST KILDA..........1.1  3.1  5.2  5.8   (38)

Goals:

Essendon: Bewick 4, Mercuri 3, Hird 3, Cockatoo-Collins 3, Long 3, Misiti 2, Alessio 2, O'Connor 2, Somerville, Denham.

St Kilda: Devonport, Smith, Everett, Sziller, O'Brien 1.

Crowd:

17,865 at Optus Oval

Comment:

...Awesome... I think that's the only word necessary. We kicked out highest score for the season - under the worst conditions for the season. It was a miserable cold and wet Melbourne day, but Essendon didn't realise that. Or more importantly they did, they adapted so quickly to the conditions and it enabled them to almost play their normal dry-weather game. It really didn't make sense that Essendon should win by so much, coming off a draining draw against Collingwood last week, and the wet conditions should have brought some of the Essendon player's skill level down - St Kilda really should have had a chance. But for some reason, the players really went in for the kill.

Many players wore gloves for the first time, and I must admit, I was a little disappointed at first, but now even I am a convert to the gloves if we can play like that in the wet each time! Possibly the best example of the Essendon players excelling in the wet was when Alessio bent down to the ground about forty metres out from goal, picked the ball up cleanly off the ground and handballed to the running Bewick who goaled. For a big man (and Alessio is a Big man) that sort of feat is difficult enough under good conditions.

Another example of good wet weather play was the fact that Mercuri was able to amass 38 possessions for the game. Other big possession winners were Bewick, Denham and Long. David Calthorpe showed everyone an exercise in stupidity when he hit Sierakowski behind the play (for which he later received two weeks suspension). In all, it was a tremendous win for the Dons, showing that a big score can be kicked under trying conditions.

Standing after Round 5:

That was definitely a percentage booster, but as I said last week, it may be that percentage doens't matter in the final wash-up for the Bombers. It kept us in third place, behind the still unbeaten Carlton and Richmond. The ladders is as follows:

--------------P-W-L-D-For-Agst--%---Pts
CARLTON.......5 5 - - 581 314 185.0 20
RICHMOND......5 5 - - 475 369 128.7 20
ESSENDON......5 4 - 1 566 351 161.3 18
WEST COAST....5 4 1 - 428 324 132.1 16
GEELONG.......5 4 1 - 545 429 127.0 16
FOOTSCRAY.....5 4 1 - 458 490  93.5 16
HAWTHORN......5 3 2 - 434 312 139.1 12
SYDNEY........5 2 3 - 519 457 113.6  8
Fremantle.....5 2 3 - 478 432 110.6  8
Adelaide......5 2 3 - 410 421  97.4  8
Brisbane......5 2 3 - 478 560  85.4  8
North Melb....5 2 3 - 363 472  76.9  8
Collingwood...5 - 4 1 385 504  76.4  2
Melbourne.....5 - 5 - 396 484  81.8  -
Fitzroy.......5 - 5 - 348 655  53.1  -
St Kilda......5 - 5 - 278 568  48.9  -

Next Week:

Another game at Optus Oval, this time against the Bears. Given our good, great, terrific, awesome form this week on that ground, we would be expected to run out big winners again against the Bears.
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