Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti gets Bomber`s over the line with brilliant goal in the dying seconds
John Longmire pulled out of the race for North Melbourne’s top job, but caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw has played down suggestions he is now in the box seat, saying his situation is “not great” after the dying-seconds loss to Essendon.
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Cometh the moment, cometh the man.
The man was none other than Essendon’s Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti as the Bombers escaped the jaws of defeat to keep themselves firmly in finals contention with a last-gasp win over North Melbourne.
As jubilant Bombers supporters screamed after the match: “We’re back, baby”.
Late in the final quarter, the Kangaroos had overcome an 18-point deficit at three-quarter time to hit the front by two points with Ben Brown’s sixth goal at the 17-minute-mark.
Essendon had lost its run and dare and hadn’t registered a score for the quarter as the clock ticked into time on.
Then McDonald-Tipungwuti bobbed up again.
A long kick to the pocket from Orazio Fantasia spilt the pack, went through the hands of Jake Stringer and Jayden Laverde and into those of “Tippa”, who snapped his fourth goal with 17 seconds left to snatch victory.
“I want to kick the winning goal, that was big in my mind. I just kept running, kept running. Lucky enough I got that handball,” he said on Fox Footy post-match.
McDonald-Tipungwuti notched 19 disposals and four tackles to go with his 4.2 — his best return in front of goal since a seven-goal haul against Brisbane in Round 4.
A barometer for the Bombers, the crafty forward now has 24.6 in Essendon wins this season and 1.1 in losses.
“Wowee. Some of the stuff he does just amazes me. I’m actually in awe. Heck of a goal,” teammate Jake Stringer said.
The defeat was a heartbreaker for the Roos, who have given their all under caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw but now face an uphill battle to play finals.
The Bombers, meanwhile, with five wins from six games, steam towards a likely September return.
Although, it was not all good news for Essendon, with Michael Hurley leaving the ground with a shoulder injury at the four-minute-mark of the third quarter after being collected by a hip-and-shoulder from Cameron Zurhaar.
CAM SHINES AGAIN
The Kangaroos have found a few players this year, none more so Cameron Zurhaar.
The Round 7 Rising Star nominee produced another strong performance, logging 15 disposals, five marks and six inside-50s.
Zurhaar kicked the opening two goals of the game and had three by the first change to get the Roos off to a flying start.
When he’s on, the 21-year-old’s tackling pressure is immense and the 189cm forward also has the ability to be swung into the midfield and impact at the coalface.
He now has 21 goals from 13 games this season and has booted three or more goals in three of those matches.
CLARKE COMPETES
Essendon great Matthew Lloyd raised a legitimate concern for the Bombers heading into the match.
“The worry from an Essendon perspective is Zac Clarke. How does he go against Todd Goldstein,” Lloyd said on 3AW of the ruck battle.
Goldstein had been in a rich vein of form, while Clarke — holding the fort for Essendon in the absence of Tom Bellchambers — managed just five disposals against the Swans the previous week.
However, the Essendon ruckman was more physical and held his own in the battle for at least the first three quarters before he began to run out of steam in what was clearly his best game for the club.
SCOREBOARD
ESSENDON 4.4 6.11 11.13 12.14 (86)
NORTH MELBOURNE 6.3 7.5 9.7 12.9 (81)
GOALS
Essendon: McDonald-Tipungwuti 4, Stringer 3, M. Brown 2, McKenna, Laverde, Langford,
North Melbourne: B. Brown 6, Zurhaar 3, Thomas 2, Anderson,
BEST
Essendon: McDonald-Tipungwuti, D. Clarke, McKenna, Gleeson, Merrett, Stringer, Saad
North Melbourne: Brown, Tarrant, Anderson, Goldstein, Zurhaar, Polec
INJURIES
Essendon: Hurley (collarbone)
North Melbourne: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Chamberlain, Fleer, Wallace
Official crowd: 45,682 at Marvel Stadium
ANOTHER CLARKE SCALP THRILLS DONS
Essendon is sweating on scans for star defender Michael Hurley after the dual All-Australian suffered a shoulder injury in last night’s win over North Melbourne.
Hurley left the field at the four-minute-mark of the third quarter after being collected by a heavy hip-and-shoulder from Kangaroos’ hard-nut Cameron Zurhaar and did not return to the field, finishing the day with his arm in a sling.
Bombers coach John Worsfold said Hurley had suffered an AC joint injury but the extent of it would be assessed after scans.
“We don’t know the grade yet obviously, so we’re not sure what that means at this stage,” Worsfold said.
The injury was a sour note to a hard-fought win over the Kangaroos, in which forward Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti kicked the winning goal with 17 seconds left on the clock.
Worsfold said his side had gone away from what it had been doing well early in the final quarter and “sat back on our heels” but said the fighting win was a “really good learning” experience for the side.
Tagger Dylan Clarke again shone as he claimed another scalp in North Melbourne midfielder Ben Cunnington.
Champion Data statistics show Clarke spent 88 minutes opposed to Cunnington, restricting the Kangaroos’ onballer to just 11 disposals during that time while gathering nine touches of his own.
Clarke, the Round 13 Rising Star nominee, also finished with a game-high 12 tackles.
“He’s got a role to play for us and he works really hard,” Worsfold said.
“He’s had some different roles. He’s played on different types of players. But today was a great test because Cunnington is a superstar at winning that contested footy and trying to set North up and I thought he kept working at it and he was good early but Dyl still impacted how much time he had with the footy early and then slowly took that ball away from him.”
SHAW: LONGMIRE SIGNING CHANGES NOTHING
North Melbourne caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw says his focus has not wavered since John Longmire pulled out of the race for the Kangaroos’ top job.
Longmire turned down a lucrative offer to join North Melbourne next year when he signed a three-year contract extension on Friday to remain at Sydney until at least the end of 2023.
The move left Shaw in the box seat for North job, but the 37-year-old said Longmire’s decision would not change his focus after he suffered just his second loss from six games in charge.
“My situation tonight is not great,” Shaw said.
“We lost so that’s all I can worry about and that’s all I do worry about.
“I want to coach this team and I’ve said that. I’d love to coach these boys. They’re a fantastic group of players. It’s a fantastic club and there’s some real excitement about it. But I can’t worry about that. I’ve got to take care of what’s in front of us and what’s in front of us is a huge challenge and it is day to day. We’ve got to make sure we look after that and the rest will take care of itself.”
The Kangaroos overcame an 18-point deficit at three-quarter-time to lead in time-on in the final quarter against Essendon.
But the Roos ultimately fell five points short after Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti snapped a goal for the Bombers with 17 seconds left on the clock.
“It’s really disappointing on one side but really pleasing on the other side to see that fight and the way they went about it,” Shaw said.
“We had opportunities to score and obviously when the game’s on the line you want to take those opportunities as much as you can and we just didn’t get that goal to give us a bit of breathing space.”
North defender Luke McDonald limped off at the 23-minute-mark of the final term with a suspected fractured fibula.
“It doesn’t look good in terms of the rest of the year,” Shaw said.
Forward Nick Larkey was treated by paramedics in the last quarter after he experienced heart palpitations, a problem he has managed for some time.
“It’s not a massive thing and our doctors are all over it,” Shaw said.
“But we’ll assess it again during the week.”
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