AFL Weekly Review Round Five Part 1 2007

AFL Round 5 Part 1

by Tim Murphy

At the MCG:

Essendon     3.4   6.6    8.10   11.13.79
Collingwood  1.5   5.12   9.16   12.23.95

Collywobbles made hard work of winning The Traditional Anzac Day Clash ™. The Pies controlled the ball pretty much all afternoon but like a number of teams these days, couldn’t kick goals. Is it flooding? The thirty-second rule? Richo knows. He misses often enough. Essadun clung on through force of will really, the scores stayed close enough for them to remain a theoretical chance most of the way but any other result would’ve been robbery. In the lead-up there’d been whinging from both sides about the 4-day break from Saturday but by the day itself such thoughts were exchanged for the honour and privilege and the great occasion of playing on Anzac Day. An honour denied anyone playing for one of the other 14 clubs, something inadvertently pointed out to Channel Ten’s new special comments man Michael Voss. “Isn’t this a great occasion Michael? . . . The first time you’ve been here I suppose?” In selection the Bombers were forced to leave out ruckman David Hille (groin strain) and dropped junior Leroy Jetta, in came talls Kepler Bradley and Mark Bolton. The Poise welcomed back Alan Didak for his first game this year following knee surgery and debuted former Carlton ruckman Chris Bryan. They replaced injured Paul Licuria (hamstring) and axed ruckman Guy Richards.

The Dons’ best period was the first five minutes, during which they bagged three goals. Luck played a hand in the first, Scotty Lucas’s mongrel punt bounced neatly over two Pies and into Matthew Lloyd’s hands. Easy slot for Lloydy. James Hird punted the Dons forward from the restart and after some scrambling Alwyn Davey swept up the loose ball, finessed around a coupla Pies, hit the accelerator and speared a very good major. Lloyd proceeded to win consecutive free-kicks under the annoying hands-on-the-back rule, but he missed both times. Some prosaic justice. Before long Davey intervened again, running down Ben Johnson and clamping on a tackle, Bomma Angus Monfries swept up the loosed ball and kicked to all-alone Lloydy, he booted another. Dons by 20 points with Collywood yet to score. Yet the way the Dons had scored their goals - a lucky bounce and two individual efforts from Davey - was indicative. The Pies played the better running team football and exerted better defensive pressure, but misses from Dale Thomas, Scott Pendlebury and Travis Cloke arrived before a good, tough effort from Pendlebury got the ball to Tarkyn Lockyer on 55m, he played on quickly and booted a goal. The Pies trailed by 11 points, neither side scored a goal again before quarter-time but some thrilling bursts of speed from Davey and Pie Thomas excited the crowd. Into the second term and the Dons’ flooded backline made incursions inside 50 rare for the Pies. Scott Burns missed a hurried chance before they scored a goal with umpiring assistance, a dubious free-kick to Alan Didak for over-the-shoulder against Dustin Fletcher. The Dons responded through the speed machine Davey again, he hit a loose ball in top gear, broke Burns’s tackle and ran on to spear it home, a superb effort. I’ve referred to the Dons’ speedy teenagers before, but recalled at this point that Davey is actually 22. Essadun led by 10 points as the Pies continued to score behinds with hurried snaps or shots from long distance, a bit unlucky with posters from Brad Dick and Nick Maxwell. Anthony Rocca was moved out to CHF and Josh Fraser went to full-forward, prompting Sheedy to switch Lucas to CHB. Briefly. Rocca marked 80m out and kicked long to Fraser, he and three other players in the marking contest failed to touch the ball and Rocca’s kick bounced through for a goal. The Dons’ lead was down to a point and a bit later tough battling from Rocca and Pendlebury set up a goal for Ben Johnson, the Maggies were 5 points in front. Essadun responded through another goal from Davey, a free-kick for being slung to the ground by Maxwell, I think. A bit later Rocca free-kicked a major, a mysterious intervention from Mal Michael not caught on camera. Pies 6 points ahead but the Bommers won the ball away from the next centre-bounce, Ricky Dyson kicked wide to find leading Courtney Johns. Big, blonde Johns had his kick after the siren and split the big sticks with a great kick from the boundary. Scores level.

Rocca was awarded a two-grab mark 20m out, right in front, and missed disgracefully to start the third term. How does this happen? Lucas, restored to the forward-line at the other end, also booted a behind before the Poise managed a goal, short passes from Lockyer to Cloke to Pendlebury saw the last-mentioned boot truly from 25m. Cloke missed from point-blank, admittedly while being tackled. Bommer Fletcher attempted a reprise of his running torpedo-goal of last week, but he was off-target too. The Poise got a goal, Shane O’Bree passed for Cloke to mark near the boundary, the same place Johns had scored from after the half-time siren, and Cloke emulated the feat. The Pies led by 12 points. The Dons were struggling to cross the centre but were given a chance by Rhyce Shaw’s poor handpass, Dyson grubbered a kick forward and it bounced handily for Lloyd to gather, his quick snap rolled through for a goal. Dyson soon punted the Bummers into attack again and Mark Bolton was awarded a doubtful, diving mark, he goaled. From minimal opportunities, the Dons led by a point again. But the Pies moved ahead before the final change. Bomma fans were angered when Andrew Lovett was dragged down without the ball and the Pies sent the Sherrin forward, Didak marked in the Johns/Cloke pocket and slotted a great kick for a goal. Replays suggested Lovett had oversold it, though. Play the ball, son. The Poise then had their own fortunate bounce, allowing Rocca to collect the pill and lob a left-footed kick to the goal-square where unopposed Didak could mark and jab it through. Magpiss by 12 points at the final change. Rocca missed woefully again early in the final stanza, from the kick-in the Bombouts advanced and a good kick from Monfries found leading Mark Johnson, he scored a sausage with a good punt. But the Pies continued to control the ball mostly. Some rapid handpassing across half-forward ended with Brad Dick thumping a goal from 50m off two steps. A minute later Bomma Kepler Bradley held a relieving mark in the back-pocket but telegraphed his across-goal kick, Pie Lockyer intercepted, played-on and blasted it through. The Poise led by 18 points, the largest differential all day and you felt it was over. The Dons found more effort though, Brent Stanton centered the ball for hard-leading Johns to mark and punt truly from 50m. Another chance came when O’Bree kicked on-the-full, from the free-kick Lucas kicked long to the goal-square, the ball spilled and Monfries snapped a sausage roll. The Bombers were still there, 7 points behind. The Pies went ahead, Lockyer caught Adam McPhee with a good tackle and Burns punted long, Rocca held a strong grab in front of Michael and finally kicked straight. The Poise led by 13 points and that was the final goal of the game, with 6 minutes remaining. Rocca missed a couple more times for the Pies and Cloke managed a comical out-on-the-full, as did Thomas. Lockyer hit the post. The Dons had a rushed behind and a long miss from Mark Johnson. Mark McVeigh and Heath Shaw engaged in fisticuffs apparently (so Walls told us), Shaw had the ball on string and played very well. The Pies triumphant.

Heath Shaw, running free from half-back, won the Anzac Day Medal with his 32 disposals and 13 marks. Did a lot of rebounding. Scott Burns (26 touches, 0.3) was very good winning the ball at stoppages and the running of Tarkyn Lockyer (18 possies, 9 marks, 2 goals) and Dale Thomas (16 touches, 8 marks) was handy again. Down back James Clement (15 disposals, 7 marks) did well on Lloyd and Harry O’Brien (11 possies) was good against Lucas - the new trend is to play a running type on Lucas, it seems. Rhyce Shaw (26 touches, 12 marks) was pretty good running out, too. At the pointy end Anthony Rocca (8 marks, 11 kicks, 3.4) came to the party and Travis Cloke (13 marks, 24 disposals, 1.3) worked hard, even if he makes mistakes fairly often. Very encouraging return from Alan Didak (16 touches, 6 marks, 3 goals). For the Bommas, thought the ‘work rate’ of Adam McPhee (23 disposals, 10 marks) was outstanding - in a side with no real running game, he works hard to get on the end of the steady stream of chipped passes. Damien Peverill (23 touches) battled hard as usual and Dustin Fletcher (25 kicks, 11 marks) did a mountain of rebounding from the Dons’ flooded backline, Paddy Ryder (10 disposals, 10 hit-outs) was quite promising again at both CHB and as a makeshift ruckman. Alwyn Davey (12 touches, 3 goals) was tremendous early, before the Pies tightened up. Brent Stanton (30 disposals) was alright and in his final Anzac Day game James Hird (23 possessions), who’s won the Medal three times, tried hard but looked off-the-pace, sadly. Matty Lloyd bagged 3 goals and Courtney Johns kicked 2 goals. The Dons have a number of big, lumbering blokes who need to improve very soon - Bolton, Bradley, Johns, Laycock. Kev Sheedy complained "We got off to a good start, but their running game was very good. The area that Essendon could do with a few boys back would be in the middle of the ground, players like (Nathan) Lovett-Murray or (Andrew) Welsh or (Jason) Winderlich or (Courtenay) Dempsey. So we’re just down a few in that area. That enabled them to really get the ball into their forward line 16 more times than us and we’re pretty fortunate really that the scoreline wasn’t worse. To get out of that with a two-goal loss is probably very fortunate . . . We probably should have had five goals on the board at quarter time. Normally maybe Matthew (Lloyd) might have kicked a few of those goals.” He went on to say other clubs would “work out” the Shaws in time and complain about the umpiring. Mick Malthouse said "It is an important win. That is what makes today important for us, we still have some terrific kids to come through . . . I am quite excited about the blokes that didn't play. And they will play. And they will make our side better because I don't want them to get games when we get injuries, I want them to get games when they push people out and, let me tell you, some of those blokes are not far off and they will improve our side even further. We are playing some young players today, they are all expected to hold up and in our ranks we have got some really exciting kids that can put real pressure on this side and make this side into a pretty good one." What about the inaccuracy, Mick? "You can't miss that many," Malthouse said. "I reckon a couple we had the angles bad, we squeezed to the fence instead of getting to the corridor and we put ourselves into a bad position . . . we were wasteful and we have been wasteful and history has shown that certain blokes have been wasteful. And I am talking Anthony (Rocca) but he is a mountain of a man that sets it up, very much a team man. Travis (Cloke) is going to get better and better - he is a 20-year-old centre half-forward, which is very difficult to play. Others missed goals, we will get better there, we put a lot of time and effort into it. We will have 23 goals 12 instead of 12.23 one day.

Cheers, Tim.