Australian Football

Match Report

A DRAWN GAME

ESSENDON'S FAULTY FORWARDS

A drawn match, Essendon's second for the season, was witnessed by about 12,000 people on the East Melbourne Cricket-ground, when St. Kilda and Essendon met. The tricolours were pretty confident about the issue, because Essendon had three leading men absent from their ranks in Baring, Chalmers, and R. Walker, and they missed two of them at least in the loss of high-marking especially.

1st Quarter

The wind was distinctly in favour of the northern goal, and Essendon had the advantage of it in the first quarter, St. Kilda in their defensive effort being content to deflect the ball well over to the Jolimont wing, and keep it is close to the fence as possible. The had McNamara posted back at that stage, and his high-marking was unquestionably valuable to the side on the defence. He got the ball nearly every time it came his way in the air, but even at this early stage, though they scored from a fair number of chances, it was obvious that there was something wanting in Essendon's forward ranks in that opening quarter Dinsmore, Webster, and Gordon in turn got goals for the red and black, and close to the end of the term Cumberland scored one for St. Kilda. There was fairly good football in this quarter, St. Kilda showing to most advantage in high-marking and kicking, which was very line, while Essendon trusted largely to dash, and, as I have said, did not quite get the advantage they should have won. The best football was seen along the wings, where the players were well-matched and playing fast, breezy football.

2nd Quarter

It was long into the second quarter before St. Kilda became prominent Essendon in these earlier stages played better football against the wind than with it, and held off their opponents so long that they looked like finishing the half on better terms, but there was a great change in the state of affairs in the last few minutes, when St. Kilda got 3 goals with a run, and at that stage McNamara who had gone forward, was again very useful. There were some very fine dashes on both sides, and 1 goals were scored for St. Kilda, McNamara getting two of them, Brady and Turnbull the others, while Essendon only put on a couple of behinds, but none the less distinguished themselves in out-play and defence. At half-time the scores were—St. Kilda, 5-4, Essendon, 3-5.

3rd Quarter

For a while Essendon played really fine football on the out-field, took command, and triumphed everywhere except on the forward lines, where their kicking was distinctly defective. Out of nine tries in that quarter, they only managed to score two goals got by Cordon and Ogden, while St. Kilda's addition was limited to two behinds. Youth and inexperience were Essendon's chief forward defects then. At the last change the scores were:-Essendon, 5-12; St. Kilda 5-6, so that leading by 6 points only Essendon faced a difficult task though the wind had by that time considerably died down.

4th Quarter

To the astonishment of the onlookers, the red and black played magnificently in that term, and on occasions made their opponents look like juniors The shrewd Sewart especially came to his best, and the game reached a stage that was full of excitement and uncertainty. St. Kilda drew up, and with six minutes to play the scores were level. The St. Kilda men threw themselves into it then like tigers, playing desperately for victory. A few minutes before they seemed a beaten team, but they were coming again in what seemed a winning vein. While the ball lay actually between the posts one of the St. Kilda forwards got a goal in a crush, which put them 7 points ahead, and shortly afterwards McNamara had a ling shot, which went out of bounds. Then Essendon brought it down with a rare run, and after some fine exchanges between Webster and Shea, Sewart passed to Shea. The ball went over his head. Dinsmore ran along the wing, got it in front of goal, passed one man, and then Lever shut him off. He turned at right angles, took the chances and scored the goal. Points were then level. Just upon time Shea had a long shot from which either a goal or a behind would have won the match. Not knowing that the match was so near the end, he tried to pass it, and immediately the bell rang. Thus the game ended with the merits on the side of Essendon, but the points even.

There were some very fine battles across the centre, where Gove was opposed to Bowden on one wing, Wade against Collins on the other, and Schmidt and Sewart battling in the centre. The whole of the six did really good work. Perhaps Gove had a little bit the better of Bowden, but there was not much in it, while the now boy, Wade, made some splendid dashes at times and held his own pretty well with Collins. Schmidt as usual, did sudden and clever things, intermixed with occasional failures, while Sewart was more constant. Apart from these men, the players who showed to most advantage in Essendon's colours were White, who put in some beautiful dashes; Donaldson, a new man, who pleased the Essendon followers immensely; Dinsmore and Gordon forward Webster, very prominent in the same quarter and Kirby as a rover. In the second division for St. Kilda were McNamara most useful at both ends of the ground; Dangerfield, half-back, where his marking was exceptional; Hattam for his persistence, Brady forward, Lever full back, and Eicke, who got a very nasty knock during the match which rather affected his play.