Essendon make late comeback to beat Carlton at MCG and keep finals hopes alive
THE idea of making a movie about Essendon’s “comeback” resurfaced this week and at the MCG, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and Cale Hooker played the heroes.
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THE Brownlow Medal might just be last man standing this season.
After losing favourite Patrick Dangerfield last week, Zach Merrett, who this week was rated as third in line to be crowned the fairest and best behind Dustin Martin and Tom Mitchell, could now be in trouble.
Let’s hope Dusty and Tom heed the warnings and keep their heads down for the rest of the year.
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Merrett’s punch to the stomach of Lachie Plowman wasn’t malicious or dangerous. Just silly. And it could well prove costly. It’ll certainly be looked at by the MRP and Essendon coach John Worsfold expects that.
“I don’t know how they’ll grade it ... Zach has a good record so it’s not like the Luke Hodge incident where he got a fine but it rolled into a suspension,” Worsfold said.
“You just wonder why it happens, what are they thinking?
“But it’s easy for us ... players are under enormous pressure.
“I’m sure Zach’s disappointed with his action especially because, again, we sit here wondering if it’s going to affect the team and we want to be better than that.”
The Merrett incident is just another vignette to add to the Bombers “comeback” story.
The idea of making a movie about Essendon’s rise following the supplements saga resurfaced this week.
And at the MCG, another mouth-watering scene was written as the Bombers kept their finals dream alive with a last gasp win over Carlton.
Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti was the leading man. He sealed the game with a magnificent running goal and the musical score was a raucous Essendon crowd who’d had an emotional day.
He was electric, especially in the last - his smother on a kick-in from Sam Docherty, winning the ball in the middle and then that goal.
His tackling was supreme, but it was a goal in the opening term that showed his star quality.
He somehow managed to keep a long bomb from Joe Daniher inside the boundary and saw off Docherty before handballing to Ben Howlett.
But he wasn’t finished. He ran back towards goal and half-collected the looped handball in space. He tunnelled the ball past Caleb Marchbank and then through the legs of Sam Petrevski-Seton before he soccered the goal.
The Blues looked like they’d stolen the game when Cale Hooker missed an easy set shot with 21 minutes played in the last. But moments later he held his nerve to kick the goal that gave the Bombers the lead that mattered.
Hooker certainly wasn’t the villain.
The protagonist, Carlton, showed plenty of courage and fight to turn what started as a rather bland affair into a tense nail-biter.
Jobe Watson slipped further from the ball-extracting match winning role he’s famous for. He did look lost.
But the Bombers’ 2017 would be blockbuster rolls on. It’s a script in constant re-write and the Merrett sub-plot will play out this week.
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