AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game
Brownlow Medal | 3 Brendon Goddard (ESS) | 2 Jobe Watson (ESS) | 1 Tom Rockliff (BRIS) |
Essendon has overcome a tenacious Brisbane Lions outfit to record an eight-point win in a scrappy, low-scoring affair at the Gabba in Saturday's twilight game. The Bombers were behind by four points at the last change but scraped together 2.3 in the last term and held Brisbane goal-less to sneak home for their fourth win of the season.
Earlier the Lions, wearing the original Brisbane Bears jumper to mark a Hall of Fame event, got off to a good start in the match, with goals to Daniel Merrett, Jonathan Brown and Dayne Zorko helping the home team to a 3.0 t0 2.3 quarter-tiome lead. But Essendon got on top in the second quarter, restricting the Lions to a single goal (to Josh Green) while adding four of its own through Joe Daniher, Jake Carlisle, David Zaharakis and Zac Merrett to take a 13-point lead into half time.
Brisbane, however, were in no mood to roll over and came out firing in third term. Goals to Marco Paparone, Green and Jackson Paine saw the Lions lead by three points as the quarter entered time on, before Essendon skipper Jobe Watson restored the lead for the Dons with a goal at the 25-minute mark. Josh Green kicked his third at the 27-minute mark and the Lions took a narrow lead into the final quarter.
But the Lions could not add to their goal tally in the final term, and goals to Jackson Merrett and Patrick Ryder were enough to see Essendon home to a second consecutive eight-point win, enough to move it up to ninth on the ladder, outside the top eight by percentage only. The Dons' wining goal tallies in both of those games have been 10 and nine, highlighting the team's struggle to put together a potent forward line, while exemplifying its strong defensive aspect.
The Dons will take on Sydney at Docklands on Friday night before having a bye in round 10, while Brisbane will meet North Melbourne at the same venue the next day before the Lions, too, have a week off.
GOALS
Brisbane: Green 3, D Merrett, Brown, Zorko, Paparone, Paine
Essendon: Z Merrett 2, Goddard, Daniher, Carlisle, Zaharakis, Watson, J Merrett, Ryder
BEST - THE SUNDAY AGE
Brisbane: Rockliff, Green, Aish, Paparone, Hanley, Redden
Essendon: Watson, Goddard, Heppell, Hurley, Stanton, Ryder
BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Brisbane: Green, Aish, Rockliff, Paparone, Hanley
Essendon: Watson, Heppell, Goddard, Ryder, Stanton
COACHES COMMENTS
Justin Leppitsch (Bris): Proud of the effort. The boys stayed in the game for four quarters. That's really good. To keep the opposition to under 10 goals, that's another good effort. So there's a couple of things we can take out of that. We probably didn't finish a few plays; lost a bit of composure, coming through centre forward. There are some little things to work on but it's nice to actually have some little things to work on.
Mark Thompson (Ess): We got the points so you'd have to be happy with that but [I'm] not happy with the way we played. Everybody could see that. I thought we turned the ball over way too much early. Brisbane looked like they were really quick. They put pressure on us when we had the ball and we found it hard to get it off them with their speed. They look like a good squad.
SUBSTITUTES
Brisbane: Nick Robertson for Andrew Raines at three-quarter time.
Essendon: Kurt Aylett for Martin Gleeson in the third quarter.
REPORTS: Matt Maguire for tripping Joe Daniher in the third quarter
UMPIRES: Leppard, Meredith and Mitchell
TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy
COMMENTATORS: Dwayne Russell, Jason Dunstall, Alastair Lynch, David King
Video sourced from YouTube, courtesy of AFL Media
Brisbane | Match Stats | Career | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | Player | K | M | H | D | G | B | HO | T | FF | FA | Age | Games | G |
7 | Adcock, Jed | 14 | 1 | 6 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 28y 176d | 171 | 39 |
4 | Aish, James | 9 | 4 | 14 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18y 183d | 8 | 2 |
16 | Brown, Jonathan | 6 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 32y 193d | 252 | 587 |
42 | Clarke, Justin | 8 | 7 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20y 173d | 22 | 1 |
26 | Cutler, Tom | 12 | 6 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 19y 79d | 5 | 2 |
27 | Gardiner, Darcy | 2 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 18y 230d | 4 | 0 |
6 | Green, Josh | 6 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 21y 259d | 40 | 46 |
11 | Hanley, Pearce | 10 | 4 | 17 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 25y 176d | 82 | 30 |
35 | Lester, Ryan | 5 | 3 | 14 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21y 257d | 45 | 11 |
36 | Maguire, Matt | 4 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 29y 345d | 156 | 20 |
32 | Mayes, Sam | 13 | 6 | 8 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 19y 355d | 26 | 20 |
21 | Merrett, Daniel | 6 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 29y 149d | 158 | 59 |
39 | Paine, Jackson | 8 | 0 | 7 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 20y 323d | 9 | 10 |
22 | Paparone, Marco | 19 | 7 | 10 | 29 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 19y 249d | 13 | 10 |
24 | Patfull, Joel | 10 | 4 | 9 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 29y 154d | 169 | 22 |
29 | Raines, Andrew | 5 | 3 | 12 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 28y 63d | 122 | 15 |
30 | Redden, Jack | 14 | 4 | 11 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 23y 152d | 106 | 47 |
18 | Robertson, Nick | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18y 341d | 5 | 0 |
38 | Rockliff, Tom | 18 | 7 | 17 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 24y 77d | 90 | 48 |
28 | Taylor, Lewis | 9 | 5 | 10 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19y 82d | 8 | 4 |
13 | West, Trent | 7 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 26y 205d | 62 | 27 |
15 | Zorko, Dayne | 10 | 0 | 6 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 25y 90d | 46 | 46 |
Rushed | 2 | |||||||||||||
Totals | 195 | 78 | 186 | 381 | 8 | 9 | 44 | 53 | 19 | 17 | 23y 263d | 1599 | 1046 |
Essendon | Match Stats | Career | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | Player | K | M | H | D | G | B | HO | T | FF | FA | Age | Games | G |
47 | Ambrose, Patrick | 6 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 22y 251d | 3 | 3 |
43 | Aylett, Kurt | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22y 38d | 2 | 0 |
12 | Baguley, Mark | 10 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 26y 354d | 36 | 2 |
22 | Carlisle, Jake | 6 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 22y 221d | 57 | 17 |
3 | Chapman, Paul | 12 | 8 | 11 | 23 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 32y 186d | 258 | 346 |
6 | Daniher, Joe | 6 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 20y 67d | 13 | 10 |
15 | Dempsey, Courtenay | 15 | 5 | 10 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 26y 255d | 91 | 25 |
31 | Fletcher, Dustin | 12 | 6 | 8 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 39y 3d | 385 | 69 |
35 | Gleeson, Martin | 4 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 19y 258d | 7 | 1 |
9 | Goddard, Brendon | 18 | 9 | 12 | 30 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 28y 355d | 233 | 129 |
21 | Heppell, Dyson | 14 | 6 | 22 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 21y 361d | 70 | 16 |
1 | Hibberd, Michael | 15 | 6 | 13 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 24y 127d | 52 | 6 |
39 | Hocking, Heath | 7 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 26y 134d | 104 | 35 |
26 | Hooker, Cale | 11 | 10 | 9 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 25y 209d | 96 | 7 |
18 | Hurley, Michael | 16 | 9 | 4 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 23y 343d | 87 | 99 |
17 | Melksham, Jake | 8 | 5 | 14 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 22y 254d | 86 | 47 |
20 | Merrett, Jackson | 4 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 21y 72d | 22 | 9 |
27 | Merrett, Zach | 8 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 18y 219d | 5 | 3 |
30 | Ryder, Paddy | 8 | 7 | 7 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 31 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 26y 57d | 155 | 101 |
5 | Stanton, Brent | 16 | 8 | 9 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 28y 9d | 211 | 140 |
4 | Watson, Jobe | 16 | 7 | 19 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 29y 91d | 181 | 102 |
11 | Zaharakis, David | 9 | 4 | 7 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 24y 78d | 95 | 75 |
Rushed | 5 | |||||||||||||
Totals | 226 | 120 | 182 | 408 | 9 | 11 | 40 | 74 | 17 | 19 | 25y 63d | 2249 | 1242 |