Essendon’s injury crisis deepens as Richmond win one of the worst AFL games of the modern era
Nic Martin will miss 12 months with an ACL tear, with another key Don facing time on the sidelines, while the club has made a pledge to players over their horror injury run.
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Essendon’s diabolical run with injuries will now compromise their 2026 preparation and season proper with Nick Martin’s ACL torn and Will Setterfield requiring lisfranc surgery.
Scans on Sunday confirmed the club’s worst fears after last year’s Crichton Medal runner-up tore his ACL being pushed over the boundary in the loss to Richmond.
He has already pledged to make a strong return like Brisbane’s Norm Smith Medallist Will Ashcroft but he will miss a huge chunk of the 2026 season.
Out-of-contract midfielder Will Setterfield will need lisfranc surgery after the mid-foot fracture but those injuries are especially problematic.
While Setterfield will hope to be back in round 1 next year the road ahead will be challenging given the injuries can be notoriously slow to heal.
Melbourne’s Harrison Petty had surgery late in the 2023 season for a lisfranc fracture and while he returned in round 1 the next year he struggled to regain confidence in his body.
Richmond star Matthew Richardson said his recovery from a lisfranc fracture was even tougher than rehabbing an ACL tear.
Midfielder Ben Hobbs will also miss the GWS clash on Thursday with groin soreness.
The Dons have pledged to inform their players of the results of the club’s injury review in a bid to reassure them they are doing everything possible to fix the injury crisis.
But as the club’s fourth 2025 ACL victim Martin won’t be back any time soon, while Lewis Hayes tore his ACL mid-May and Nick Bryan in mid-April.
The club will still hope they can be ready somewhere around round 1, while mid-sized forward Tom Edwards tore his ACL in late March.
Nik Cox will hope to overcome his concussion issues next year but was shut down for the 2025 season by a concussion panel, while Zac Reid will hope he can rectify his hamstring concerns.
It means coach Brad Scott will have a compromised pre-season as he attempts to improve the club’s defensive system and game plan.
The Dons will have to find a way to field a competitive side against Greater Western Sydney on Thursday night in another prime time encounter where only four of last year’s top 10 in the best-and-fairest are available.
GWS coach Adam Kingsley didn’t rule out resting former Bombers forward Jake Stringer off a five-day break given two early-season hamstring concerns.
But with Kingsley suggesting Jesse Hogan (foot) was more likely to be rested Stringer might get the chance to show off in front of one of his former sides.
After some tough love he has looked fitter than in recent years at Essendon and kicked four goals against Geelong.
Sam Taylor (toe) and Stephen Coniglio (two VFL games back from a glute injury) could also return against an Essendon side which could blood yet more first-gamers.
Martin told Seven he had immediately realised his knee didn’t feel right after he crashed into the MCG turf.
“It is an interesting one because I have got Will Ashcroft in my head, how quickly he returned and found form straight away so all you can do is take it one day at a time and get better,” he said.
“In times of adversity you build a bit of resilience. As tough as it is, I am really optimistic about what we can build so the adversity boys will face will see them in good stead in the long term.”
BOMBERS’ INJURY CRISIS DEEPENS WITH ACL FEARS FOR MARTIN
— Ronny Lerner
Essendon coach Brad Scott said that news of star playmaker Nic Martin’s serious knee injury sent “a shiver down everyone’s spine” at quarter-time of the Bombers’ nine-point loss to Richmond at the MCG on Saturday night.
Just when it seemed like Essendon’s catastrophic injury crisis couldn’t get any worse, it did so significantly when Martin suffered a suspected ACL rupture in the first quarter.
Compounding things for the Bombers was the loss of important midfielder Will Setterfield, who appeared to sustain a significant foot injury.
Almost half of Essendon’s best 22 is now sidelined as Martin and Setterfield now join Sam Draper (Achilles), Jye Caldwell (ankle), Kyle Langford (quad), Zach Reid (hamstring), Ben McKay (foot), Darcy Parish (calf), Nick Bryan (knee) and Harrison Jones (ankle) in the stands.
Scott admitted the mounting injury toll was starting to have an adverse effect on the team’s spirit.
“For us it’s trying to put on a brave face and be positive and upbeat, which is what you need to be as a leader, but it’s getting hard to deny that it’s not flattening, what’s happening at the moment,” Scott said.
“I can’t think of a situation like this in my time in footy.
“Teams can adapt and cover one or two but when you’re talking about half of the team you’ve just got to accept that the synergy’s not going to be there.
“It’s a tough situation but we’ve just got to find our way through it.
“The minute you start to think, ‘Poor me’, or, ‘Poor us’, or, ‘This is unfair’, you become a victim, and I think we’ve just got to face the situation we’re in and make the most of every situation.”
Unfortunately for Martin, he looks set to become the club’s fifth long-term injury for the year following on from Draper, Bryan, Lewis Hayes (knee) and Tom Edwards (knee).
“With these 12-month injuries that are mounting up, it’s going to be a real challenge to keep everyone’s morale up but that’s the job of leaders,” Scott said.
The Bombers played their 12th debutant for the season on Saturday night in Oskar Smartt, and fielded nine players aged 20 or younger as well as six players with seven games or less experience.
“I think we’re asking a lot of guys who haven’t played AFL footy before,” he said.
“The synergy part is the hardest. You’re trying to put together a team that every single week have never played together.
“It just looks like a team that hasn’t played together and quite frankly it’s very hard to coach when you’re trying to bring them together and almost educate theoretically without being able to spend the time training it.
“The upside for us is that we’re getting exposure to guys that know the level and know the level they’ve got to get to.
“The most important thing for us is to fight our way through it and just deal with the circumstances that have been put in front of us at the moment and not try and dwell on what we haven’t got.”
As for the game itself on Saturday night, it will go down as one of the worst-standard matches in league history.
It was an error-riddled slugfest which produced a total of just 10 goals in perfect conditions, and Scott agreed it was a tough watch.
“That’s not how AFL footy is supposed to look,” he said.
“It was clearly a terrible game, but the second quarter probably summed us up a little bit.
“If you can keep the ball in your front half for 80 per cent of the quarter and not kick a goal, there’s some serious issues there.”
The Bombers managed only four goals from 55 inside 50s.
“If you’re kicking the ball to two Coleman medallists, I guarantee it’s much easier to kick the ball to them than it is to kick the ball into our forward line at the moment,” he said.
“We can’t put the score together like good teams do at the moment.”
Scott anticipated he would be handing a few more debuts to some untried players before the season is over.
RICHMOND RECAPTURE HUNGER
But the Tigers finished the game stronger, and ratcheted up their pressure to kick the only three goals in the final term and steal the win with more desire and desperation.
Heading into the game, Richmond averaged 50 less uncontested possessions than the opposition per game and were ranked No.18 in the league, but they finished up with 27 more than the Bombers (247-220).
As bad as Richmond were going forward, the Bombers were far worse. Brad Scott’s men won the inside-50 count 55-46 yet could only manage 4.13 (37) to 6.10 (46).
TARANTO LEADS THE WAY
Tim Taranto was the standout for the winners, racking up 34 disposals (10 contested), five tackles and a goal, while Jayden Short (10 marks), 250-gamer Nick Vlastuin (eight), Tom Brown (11), Ben Miller (eight) and Tylar Young (eight) all stood tall in defence.
Zach Merrett was the pick of the Bombers with 31 touches (nine) and six clearances.
HOTTON’S HOT START
Richmond debutant Taj Hotton didn’t waste time in having an impact. Shortly after entering the game off the bench, his first involvement was a tackle on Elijah Tsatas which yielded a holding-the-ball free kick. And a few minutes later he took a magnificent aerial mark over Andrew McGrath before converting the set shot from 30m out in front.
Scoreboard
RICHMOND 3.4, 3.5, 3.9, 6.10 (46)
ESSENDON 3.0, 3.6, 4.10, 4.13 (37)
RONNY LERNER’S BEST
Tigers: Taranto, Vlastuin, Short, Brown, Miller, Young, Broad.
Dons: Merrett, Roberts, Ridley, Laverde, Durham, Duursma.
GOALS
Tigers: Banks, Hotton, Short, Taranto, Hopper, Faull.
Dons: Durham, Tsatas, Caddy, May.
INJURIES Tigers: Nil. Dons: Martin (knee), Setterfield (foot).
UMPIRES Jankovskis, Stevic, Young, Jones
52,125 at the MCG
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
RONNY LERNER’S VOTES
3 Tim Taranto (RICH)
2 Zach Merrett (ESS)
1 Nick Vlastuin (RICH)
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