By Andrew Wu
Essendon fans have seen this movie before.
For the second year in a row, a finals flame that burned so brightly for much of the season is threatening to be extinguished.
Adelaide’s Josh Rachele celebrates a goal against Essendon.Credit: Getty Images
Instead of waking up on a Saturday morning basking in the winter glow with their side second on the ladder, the Bombers faithful are counting down the hours until they are knocked out of the eight. On recent form, with five losses from their last seven games, it may not be temporary.
This was a match the Bombers should have won. Even if Josh Rachele’s snap out of traffic had missed, questions would have been asked about how a supposedly finals-bound side found itself in a chaotic shootout against a side that had been laborious in its ball movement and seldom played with such flair this year.
Adelaide came into the game undermanned and finished further depleted. Already missing Taylor Walker and Izak Rankine, the Crows were without their two key defenders Nick Murray and Jordon Butts for almost all the second half, and their skipper and best player Jordan Dawson for much of the last quarter.
While Jye Caldwell’s late absence is a minor mitigating factor, the Bombers squandered a 15-point lead just before time-on in the last quarter despite riding the wave of energy from a partisan red and black crowd with greater resources on the bench. As far as bottle jobs go, they don’t come much worse than this.
Adelaide’s Ben Keys tackles Essendon’s Jye Caldwell.Credit: Getty Images
It would be understandable, perhaps, if it had been a team like Sydney who pulled the Houdini act, but not the 14th-placed Crows.
This is club that coach Matthew Nicks joked has been celebrating a spate of 19th, 20th and 21st birthdays; that has not played a final since 2017 and won just two of their previous 12 games decided by less than 10 points.
Yet they still conjured a miracle against a Bombers team that, despite the messaging out of The Hangar about building for the future, should be further advanced than they are.
The 23 Essendon fielded on Friday night had about 800 games more experience than Adelaide. While the Crows had nine players who had played less than 50 games, including three yet to reach double figures, the Bombers had just three.
Half their starting 22 have played more than 100 games but who of that group outside of Zach Merrett, Jordan Ridley and perhaps Andrew McGrath can be relied upon to carry, rather than be carried, when times are tough, like the 17-minute period in the second term when the besieged Bombers gave up eight goals in a row? When they were smashed out of the middle, their midfield and defence were unable to lay a glove on the Sherrin or a Crows jumper.
It certainly wasn’t Mason Redman, whose panicked handball to Jake Kelly gave up a goal to Ben Keays. Ben McKay has been dependable for much of the year, but his speculative handball under pressure also coughed up a goal to Keays.
Eight goals in the third term spoke to a professional pride, but their inability to ice the game despite throwing an extra number back revealed more about their immaturity.
In the past month, they have lost the plot when free kicks went against them in losing to Geelong; failed to follow instructions and adapt to the wet against Melbourne, and lacked the composure and knowhow to arrest a savage momentum swing.
Essendon skipper Zach Merrett is dejected after the loss to the Crows.Credit: Getty Images
These are the mistakes of a young side finding its way. Without a finals win since 2004, the Bombers, it can be said, are also finding their way, but in football terms they are a middle-aged team with enough grey matter, and grey hair, to be past this, a point Scott begrudgingly accepted.
“I think that’s being a resultist, we should be better,” Scott said. “And we’ve shown we’ve put ourselves in a position where our best footy is very solid but that’s that’s the difference between where we want to be and where we are now.
“You’re right about those things. We should be better than that. And we’ve got to keep working till we are.”
This was supposed to be one of the three wins that would get them to September.
They still have five games to get those victories, but the likelihood is they will need to get it done in the next three weeks against St Kilda, Fremantle and Gold Coast – all in Melbourne. The alternative is having to beat Sydney and/or Brisbane at the Gabba.
The path to the finals has suddenly become rockier and narrower – and nobody in the Essendon community wants to watch a cliffhanger.
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