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Adelaide vs Essendon

Scoreboard | Match report | Match statistics

Round: 1   Venue: Football Park   Date: Fri, 22-03-2013 8:10 pm   Crowd: 42,218  
Adelaide 3.4.224.9.338.14.6211.16.82 C:  Brenton Sanderson
Essendon 1.3.97.5.4713.7.8518.9.117 C:  James Hird
  ADEL by 13ESS by 14ESS by 23ESS by 35  
Brownlow Medal 3 Ben Howlett (ESS)2 Jobe Watson (ESS)1 Heath Hocking (ESS)

Match Report

Essendon put a summer of turmoil behind them to run out impressive winners against a highly-fancied Adelaide in the AFL's season-opener at Football Park on Friday night. Reigning Brownlow medallist and Bomber captain Jobe Watson carried his fine 2012 form into this match and was the game's dominant player.

Things hadn't looked quite so rosy for Watson and his teammates half way through the opening term. The Crows got a huge jump on Essendon early and led 3.4 to 0.0 at the 15-minute mark. Dangerfield and Thompson were in everything at that stage and it looked as though the Dons' nightmare summer was going to carry through into the season proper. But the Bombers began to turn the tide from that point. A goal to Brent Stanton settled the team and they gradually worked themselves back into the match. At quarter-time, the Crows led by 13 but Essendon was at least on the board.

The second term saw the game take a dramatic turn as Essendon began to resemble the well-drilled machine that the Crows had in the first part of the match. Stewart Crameri and Ben Howlett goaled within the first two minutes and the Bombers were to add a further four majors for the term, while Adelaide added just one through the agency of Graham Johncock.

By half-time the Bombers led by 14 points but Adelaide looked as though they were struggling to stay in touch. It proved to be the case as Essendon piled on another six goals in the third-quarter to Adelaide's four, opening up a 23-point lead at the final change.

The Crows showed occasional signs of a potential comeback at stages of the last quarter but the Bombers remained steadfast, kicking a further five goals to run out convincing 35-point victors. Watson (34 possessions) was ably backed up by Stanton (26), Howlett (25 and 4 goals) and Alwyn Davey who chipped in for three goals, while the Crows were well served by the ever-reliable Scott Thompson and Matthew Wright. Taylor Walker had a dream-start to his year, kicking the season's first goal but his second and third only came late in the last quarter, prompting some Crows fans to wonder about just how big an impact the loss of Kurt Tippett would have on the Crows' 2013 season.

GOALS
Adelaide: Walker 3; Douglas 2; Jenkins, Johncock, Mackay, Petrenko, Porplyzia, van Berlo
Essendon: Howlett 4; Davey 3; Bellchambers, Crameri, Dempsey, Goddard, Hibberd, Hocking, Kommer, Melksham, Myers, Stanton, Watson

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Adelaide: Wright, Sloane, Douglas, Reilly, Vince
Essendon: Watson, Howlett, Heppell, Dempsey, Myers, Hibberd, Kommer, Merrett, Carlisle

BEST - THE AGE.COM.AU
Adelaide: Jaensch, Jacobs, Reilly, Sloane, Wright, Douglas
Essendon: Watson, Howlett, Fletcher, Heppell, Davey, Myers

COACHES' COMMENTS
Brenton Sanderson (Adel): The glaring stat for us is the tackles. I think we ended up being minus 26 or minus 27. They brushed us away. They got some easy goals [whereas] we had to really fight for our goals. They just killed us in centre-bounce clearances. We had our A-grade boys in there but unfortunately they got beaten. At times we looked a bit stagnant [in the forward line, without Tippett]. We didn't want to take risks.

James Hird (Ess): That performance didn't surprise me but I was very proud of the way they played. Tonight was a good performance but it's Round 1 and there's a lot more of the season to go. Heath Hocking's game [on Patrick Dangerfield] tonight was outstanding. Ben Howlett's game was excellent. Our whole backline, when they were under duress in that first 20 minutes was excellent as well. I was [also] very happy with the way Brendon Goddard played.

INJURIES
Adelaide: Brown (left foot)
Essendon: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
Adelaide: Brodie Martin replaced Luke Brown (left foot) in the third quarter
Essendon: David Zaharakis replaced Stewart Crameri in the third quarter

UMPIRES: Rosebury, Meredith, Jeffery

Source

Match report by Andrew Gigacz

Footnotes

Video sourced from YouTube, courtesy of AFL Media.

Match stats

Adelaide Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
16 Brown, Luke 3 2 4 7 0 0 0 3 0 0 20y 181d 4 0
32 Dangerfield, Patrick 10 1 7 17 0 1 0 2 1 2 22y 351d 90 94
26 Douglas, Richard 13 5 6 19 2 1 0 2 0 1 26y 44d 115 78
45 Henderson, Ricky 11 7 3 14 0 2 0 1 1 0 24y 192d 43 34
24 Jacobs, Sam 9 2 1 10 0 1 37 1 1 0 24y 346d 61 13
10 Jaensch, Matthew 7 2 6 13 0 0 0 1 0 0 23y 185d 35 14
4 Jenkins, Josh 9 3 2 11 1 0 7 1 3 1 24y 42d 12 12
18 Johncock, Graham 7 4 6 13 1 1 0 2 2 0 30y 152d 226 119
14 Mackay, David 8 3 8 16 1 0 0 4 1 2 24y 240d 87 25
36 Martin, Brodie 6 2 3 9 0 0 0 1 2 0 24y 136d 17 4
22 Otten, Andy 6 3 9 15 0 0 0 0 1 0 23y 311d 48 3
23 Petrenko, Jared 4 0 1 5 1 1 0 6 1 0 23y 90d 60 34
40 Porplyzia, Jason 8 3 8 16 1 2 0 1 0 1 28y 115d 111 168
3 Reilly, Brent 13 3 6 19 0 0 0 4 1 5 29y 130d 182 50
25 Rutten, Ben 2 1 5 7 0 0 0 1 0 1 29y 298d 195 8
9 Sloane, Rory 12 1 11 23 0 1 0 6 2 0 23y 5d 58 37
12 Talia, Daniel 3 1 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 3 21y 171d 33 1
5 Thompson, Scott 11 4 12 23 0 0 0 3 0 2 30y 8d 224 139
7 Van Berlo, Nathan 12 3 2 14 1 0 0 1 2 1 26y 289d 164 57
17 Vince, Bernie 10 2 6 16 0 0 0 1 2 4 27y 171d 109 67
13 Walker, Taylor 9 4 5 14 3 1 0 1 2 2 22y 331d 65 156
11 Wright, Matthew 14 7 10 24 0 0 0 5 2 1 23y 98d 42 33
  Rushed   5  
  Totals 187 63 123 310 11 16 44 47 24 26 25y 94d 1981 1146
Essendon Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
46 Baguley, Mark 6 4 1 7 0 0 0 3 1 3 25y 305d 8 0
2 Bellchambers, Tom 5 2 3 8 1 1 26 1 1 3 23y 256d 44 21
22 Carlisle, Jake 9 9 4 13 0 0 0 3 0 1 21y 172d 29 7
12 Crameri, Stewart 3 2 1 4 1 1 0 2 0 1 24y 224d 42 67
29 Davey, Alwyn 3 0 9 12 3 0 0 3 1 0 28y 311d 87 104
15 Dempsey, Courtenay 15 7 5 20 1 0 0 5 1 1 25y 206d 75 18
31 Fletcher, Dustin 16 5 0 16 0 0 0 2 0 1 37y 319d 366 69
9 Goddard, Brendon 13 7 1 14 1 0 0 2 1 2 27y 306d 206 105
21 Heppell, Dyson 14 3 9 23 0 0 0 2 2 1 20y 312d 44 6
1 Hibberd, Michael 12 5 5 17 1 0 0 1 1 2 23y 78d 23 2
39 Hocking, Heath 11 4 2 13 1 0 0 10 3 0 25y 85d 81 29
26 Hooker, Cale 10 7 6 16 0 0 0 1 1 2 24y 160d 67 5
40 Howlett, Ben 16 5 9 25 4 1 0 6 3 2 24y 152d 58 25
18 Hurley, Michael 9 4 6 15 0 2 0 1 3 1 22y 294d 64 75
38 Kommer, Nick 9 1 7 16 1 1 0 2 4 1 22y 175d 1 1
17 Melksham, Jake 8 2 9 17 1 0 0 5 0 1 21y 205d 60 27
20 Merrett, Jackson 8 4 8 16 0 0 0 3 1 0 20y 23d 2 0
23 Myers, David 12 2 10 22 1 0 0 3 1 0 23y 265d 46 12
30 Ryder, Paddy 2 1 2 4 0 0 11 5 1 0 25y 8d 133 87
5 Stanton, Brent 17 5 9 26 1 0 0 6 1 0 26y 325d 183 117
4 Watson, Jobe 23 3 11 34 1 1 0 3 0 2 28y 42d 155 80
11 Zaharakis, David 3 0 3 6 0 1 0 4 0 0 23y 29d 67 64
  Rushed   1  
  Totals 224 82 120 344 18 9 37 73 26 24 24y 326d 1841 921

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.