Essendon v North Melbourne: Bombers dazzle on way to 72-point win
Essendon’s future might be arriving faster than anyone expected with a thumping win against North Melbourne putting the Bombers within sight of the top eight.
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A first-half blast has propelled Essendon to a thumping 72-point victory over North Melbourne on Sunday, bringing the Kangaroos back to earth with a massive thud following their breakthrough win against Hawthorn last week.
Powered by their star midfield trio of Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish and Andrew McGrath, Essendon got off to an absolute flyer, booting six of the first seven goals to shoot out to a 32-point lead late in the first quarter.
And it didn’t get much better for David Noble’s side, as the relentless Bombers continued to put the pedal to the metal to open up a 50-point lead at main break – North’s biggest halftime deficit of the season – before outscoring the Kangaroos by another four goals in the second half to score their biggest win against their local rival in 20 years.
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“We’ve been trying to work on our inside-50 kicks and connection a bit more so I thought that was highlighted pretty well today,” Essendon midfielder Zach Merrett said.
“There were still a few we’d like to get back, but I think our growth in that area the last month has been fantastic.”
The Bombers’ next assignment is a daunting one – West Coast in Perth – and coach Ben Rutten was keen for his side to not only win its first interstate game of the year, but also prove themselves against a top-eight contender, especially with only a couple of games now separating the Eagles and Dons on the ladder.
“That’s where our group needs to go now, to keep experiencing, we want to be in these games against other teams around us and then ultimately start being a real threat and beating the higher teams on the ladder. That’s where we’re heading as a group,” Rutten said.
Big man Peter Wright copped a nasty cut above his left eye late in the game, but Rutten said it didn’t look as though he was experiencing any concussive symptoms post-match.
In a further boost for the Bombers, Jake Stringer (hamstring) and Sam Draper (ankle) are a chance of returning next week, but whether that’s via the VFL or AFL is still yet to be determined.
A frustrated North Melbourne coach David Noble has stressed that his Kangaroos cannot be a team that “rallies for a bloody quarter”.
Outside of the third term at Marvel Stadium, when North outscored the Bombers by 10 points, it was one-way traffic towards Essendon’s end of the ground.
“We only rallied for a quarter, though. That’s not good enough,” Noble said.
“The frustrating and disappointing thing is we’ve got to rally from the start.
“That’s not substantiable, we don’t want to have quarters where we just bounce and we go, ‘Yep, that’s good enough’. It’s just clearly not good enough.
“It was really poor on our side. We let them start well, we couldn’t wrestle anything back.
“We clearly got a lesson today on quick use of the ball, turnover, punishing the opposition from that side of things.
“We thought we had learnt some areas from last week (against Hawthorn) and we weren’t able to sustain it.
“The solution is the guys that go on the paddock have got to bring the right energy, they’ve got to bring the right level of combativeness to compete and we didn’t do that from the start today.”
Essendon overwhelmed North with high-level pressure, leading to numerous costly turnovers and skill errors which deprived the Kangaroos of meaningful goalkicking opportunities.
Above everything else, North were let down badly by terrible forward delivery. Their shoddy supply proved no match for Essendon defenders Jordan Ridley, Mason Redman, Aaron Francis and Dyson Heppell, who picked off the Kangaroos’ attacking forays as they pleased.
The Kangaroos actually won the inside-50 count 51-50 and clearances 31-28, underscoring the cavernous difference in attacking efficiency between the two teams.
North ended up scoring 10.9 from their 51 entries, compared to Essendon’s 22.9 from 50. The Bombers looked far more dangerous in attack and finished with 12 goalkickers, including seven multiples.
In what was supposed to be a year of list renovation and development, the Bombers now find themselves just a game outside the top eight nearing the halfway mark of the season, a scenario which would surely have been at odds with even the club’s most optimistic internal prognostications.
The result ensures the Kangaroos will remain on the bottom of the ladder at the end of Round 11 next weekend, after which the order of picks for the mid-season draft will be finalised.
Sandringham Dragons key forward and ruckman Jacob Edwards remains the likely first selection for the Kangaroos, despite not being on the AFL’s updated list of nominations which was sent to clubs last Wednesday.
Final nominations close at 5pm on Tuesday, ahead of the draft on June 2.
The loss for the Kangaroos could be further soured, with a clumsy spoiling attempt from veteran ruckman Todd Goldstein set to come under scrutiny from the AFL’s match review officer.
Goldstein collected Essendon opponent Wright with a fist to the side of his head in the marking contest, with Wright forced to leave the ground under the blood rule.
Essendon enjoyed a percentage boost of 8.2 points with the win, but faces a tough trip to Perth to tackle West Coast next weekend.
STEP UP IN MIDFIELD CLASS FOR NORTH
North Melbourne had its way against Hawthorn’s midfield last week, but it was a different story in this round, with Merrett, Parish and McGrath teaming up with devastating effect in the middle of the park, slicing up the Kangaroos like a group of surgeons and finishing the game with 98 disposals and 18 clearances between them. Parish had a game-high 36 touches and 11 clearances to continue his breakout season.
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
The Bombers’ future looks brighter with each passing week. Precocious youngsters Harrison Jones (three), Nik Cox (two) and Archie Perkins (one) combined for six goals, including a pair of impressive long bombs from Perkins and Cox on challenging angles.
Jones also kicked one of the goals of the day midway through the first term when he quickly slapped the ball on his boot under pressure for a miraculous snap from the boundary in the pocket under pressure. After starting the year with 0.3 from his first two games, Jones has kicked 13.1 to become one of the Bombers’ most reliable shots at goal.
FAST STARTERS
Essendon burst out of the blocks to be 6.4 (40) at quarter-time for the third time this year, having also achieved that exact score at the first change against St Kilda and Carlton. The Dons have now kicked at least six first-quarter goals three times inside the first 10 games of a season for the first time since 2004.
ZURHAAR TAKES OFF
Cameron Zurhaar produced the biggest North Melbourne highlight when he flew over Jayden Laverde and Aaron Francis on the broadcast side wing to take the mark of the game midway through the third quarter.
SCOREBOARD
BOMBERS 6.4, 11.5, 15.6, 22.9 (141)
KANGAROOS 2.1, 3.3, 8.8, 10.9 (69)
LERNER’S BEST
Bombers: Merrett, Parish, McGrath, Snelling, Heppell, Redman, Ridley.
Kangaroos: Cunnington, Turner, Garner, Hall.
GOALS
Bombers: Wright 3, Jones 3, McDonald-Tipungwuti 3, Hooker 2, Cox 2, Langford 2, Waterman 2, Zaharakis, Snelling, Perkins, Phillips, Hind.
Kangaroos: Garner 3, Campbell 2, Thomas 2, Cunnington, J.Walker, Zurhaar.
INJURIES
Bombers: Wright (cut eyebrow).
Kangaroos: Nil.
UMPIRES: Fisher, Fleer, Dore
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
LERNER’S VOTES
3. Zach Merrett (Ess)
2. Darcy Parish (Ess)
1. Andrew McGrath (Ess)
Originally published as Essendon v North Melbourne: Bombers dazzle on way to 72-point win
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