It was the moment Hawthorn broke Essendon as third-quarter demons ruined Bombers hopes
THE “premiership” quarter continues to haunt Essendon and James Sicily’s match-defining goal in Hawthorn’s win at the MCG could mark the point of no return for the Bombers’ season.
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IT was the defining moment of the game from a quarter that has summed up Essendon’s faltering start to a 2018 season that is slowly slipping away.
Nineteen minutes into the third term of yesterday’s clash between the Bombers and their old rivals Hawthorn, defender James Sicily took an uncontested grab from a long bomb miskick fired haphazardly into the Essendon attack.
What seemed so easy for him was about to get even easier.
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Just as Sicily prepared to clear the ball from centre half-back, Joe Daniher gave up a 50m penalty, allowing the best-afield Hawk to within a fluker’s chance of scoring.
He was still well outside 50m, but Sicily’s towering 60m long kick not only sailed through the goals, it cleared the fence right into the Essendon cheer-squad.
That pushed the margin from 11 points out to 17, and essentially that was the ball game.
There was no way back for Essendon from that moment on, as the Hawks turned the screws on a team so bereft in confidence that many of their fans started streaming out of the game long before the final siren sounded.
As Sicily headed back to defence after kicking the goal, the fiery Hawk offered out his hand to Daniher in a mock high-five motion that the out-of-sorts Essendon forward not so politely declined.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said he hadn’t seen the Sicily high-five moment showcased his cheeky side as he was heading down from the coaches’ box to the boundary, which the coach did for all four quarters as he closely connected to his young group.
Neither did Clarkson’s counterpart, John Worsfold.
But all theatrics aside, that moment characterised the way the Hawks’ defence so completely shut out the Essendon forwards in what was a far more lopsided contest than the final margin of 23 points.
It was a whitewash everywhere other than the scoreboard, and having been touted by some pundits as near certain finalists and maybe even a premiership hope, the Bombers look to be so far removed from that at the moment.
They sit uneasily as 2-5, with their wins over Adelaide and Port Adelaide a distant memory given the way they are playing right now.
Their forward line isn’t functioning at the moment. Daniher appears sapped of confidence and kicked only a late goal in another disappointing display, while boom recruit Jake Stringer had 11 disposals, failed to kick a goal, and even one of his long-time supporters, Brian Taylor, said on Triple M, he looked disinterested and completely out of sorts.
The most remarkable thing of an unremarkable match was that Essendon actually led at half-time by 10 points.
But as has happened so often this year, it was another wipe-out during the third term that has become a trend for the Bombers this year.
Hawthorn kicked 6.3 to 0.1 in that term to push the Essendon differential in third quarters to minus 136 points - a woeful return - the worst in the AFL at the moment.
That third term wasteland left them on five goals to three-quarter-time.
It mattered little the Bombers outscored the Hawks by five goals to three in the final term - the game was done and dusted by that stage.
Sicily was superb across half-back and was clearly the most influential player on the field. If he stays out of trouble, he could well be an All-Australian backman of the future.
He had 606 metres gained, and gave his team great run, taking an equal personal best 14 marks, Tom Mitchell had 29 disposals after Dyson Heppell ran with him for most of the game, Jaeger O’Meara was solid, Jarryd Roughead booted three goals in a Hawks forward line that functioned much better for than it did for their opponents at the other end.
Tom Bellchambers rucked bravely for the Bombers, but as his coach said after the game, it was left to too little to make an impact, on day the Bombers would sooner forget.
HAWTHORN 2.4 4.4 10.7 13.12 (90)
ESSENDON 4.2 5.5 5.6 10.7 (67)
BEST
HAWKS: Sicily, Roughead, Mitchell, O’Meara, Smith, Cousins, Hardwick.
BOMBERS: Bellchambers, Hooker, Heppell, Stewart, Hurley.
GOALS
HAWKS: Roughead 3, Smith 2, O’Meara, Whitecross, Gunston, Breust, Sicily, Mitchell, Impey, Shiels.
BOMBERS: McDonald-Tipungwuti, Hooker, Heppell, Parish, Daniher, Stewart, Mutch, Baguley, Ambrose, Bellchambers.
INJURIES
HAWKS: Henderson (illness) replaced by Cousins. Langford (back spasms) replaced by Whitecross.
UMPIRES
Dalgleish, Mollison, Wallace.
CROWD
53,018 at MCG
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