Bombers hold on in Good Friday thriller but star big man is facing a long injury lay-off

Peter Wright kicked six goals but Sam Draper suffered a suspected season-ending achilles injury as Essendon came from 29 points down to post a thrilling two-point win over West Coast at Optus Stadium.

The Bombers trailed 37-8 early in the second quarter of Friday night’s match and still trailed by 25 points midway through the third term.

Xavier Duursma, Peter Wright and Dylan Shiel after one of Wright’s six majors.Credit: Getty Images

Two goals in the space of a minute from Archie Perkins and Wright’s ongoing dominance gave Essendon a 12-point buffer late in the match.

In a thrilling finish, Eagles forward Jack Williams kicked a goal to reduce the margin to two points with 28 seconds remaining.

Essendon kicked the ball out wide from the next centre bounce to chew up vital seconds, with an ensuing intercept mark sealing the 11.11 (77) to 11.9 (75) win in front of 46,080 fans.

Wright was the star of the show, kicking 6.1 while gathering 17 disposals and seven marks in his first match of the AFL season due to injury.

Zach Merrett (26 disposals, seven clearances, one goal), Andrew McGrath (25 disposals) and Nic Martin (26 disposals, one goal) also played important roles.

But the win came at a huge cost, with Draper crumpling into a heap early in the last quarter when he set off to run with no one around him.

“It looks like an achilles,” Essendon coach Brad Scott said. “The severity of it - we’re concerned about it.

“It sounds like one of those classic achilles injuries where he thought he was kicked, but no one kicked him unfortunately.”

Bombers winger Xavier Duursma was taken to hospital after a knee to his ribs from Eagles ruckman Matt Flynn in the dying minutes.

“We think he’s fine, but he’s gone to hospital just as a precaution to make sure,” Scott said.

“He said he’s never been winded like that, but when you have something like that, they’ve just got to double check it.”

For West Coast, Jake Waterman kicked four goals - all in the first quarter - while Jeremy McGovern (23 disposals) was a rock in defence.

Tim Kelly collected 22 disposals and three clearances in his first match back from being dropped to the WAFL, and Elijah Hewett (22 disposals, five clearances, two goals) played his best match of the season.

Harley Reid was restricted to 17 disposals and three clearances, and his heavy first-quarter bump on Archie Roberts could come under scrutiny.

West Coast tallied an AFL record-low 77 contested possessions against Carlton last week, but they produced 35 alone in the opening quarter against Essendon as Waterman took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Alarm bells were ringing for Essendon when Jamie Cripps kicked a goal early in the second quarter to stretch the margin to 29 points.

But it was the Wright show from that point on, with Essendon’s clearance dominance (37-22 for the match) giving the Bombers spearhead enough opportunities to kick a big bag.

It was Wright’s first AFL match of the season, with an ankle injury keeping him out of action until a VFL practice match last week.

“It was clearly a much improved performance,” West Coast coach Andrew McQualter said, in reference to last week’s 71-point loss to Carlton.

“Really disappointing not to get a win.

“I thought we put ourselves in a really winnable position ... and even being able to dominate the last quarter, but we just weren’t able to score throughout that last quarter.”

AAP

That’s all we have for you from an action packed Good Friday of footy.

Good bye for now.

Peter Wright kicked six goals but Sam Draper suffered a suspected season-ending achilles injury as Essendon came from 29 points down to post a thrilling two-point win over West Coast at Optus Stadium.

The Bombers trailed 37-8 early in the second quarter of Friday night’s match and still trailed by 25 points midway through the third term.

Xavier Duursma, Peter Wright and Dylan Shiel after one of Wright’s six majors.Credit: Getty Images

Two goals in the space of a minute from Archie Perkins and Wright’s ongoing dominance gave Essendon a 12-point buffer late in the match.

In a thrilling finish, Eagles forward Jack Williams kicked a goal to reduce the margin to two points with 28 seconds remaining.

Essendon kicked the ball out wide from the next centre bounce to chew up vital seconds, with an ensuing intercept mark sealing the 11.11 (77) to 11.9 (75) win in front of 46,080 fans.

Wright was the star of the show, kicking 6.1 while gathering 17 disposals and seven marks in his first match of the AFL season due to injury.

Zach Merrett (26 disposals, seven clearances, one goal), Andrew McGrath (25 disposals) and Nic Martin (26 disposals, one goal) also played important roles.

But the win came at a huge cost, with Draper crumpling into a heap early in the last quarter when he set off to run with no one around him.

“It looks like an achilles,” Essendon coach Brad Scott said. “The severity of it - we’re concerned about it.

“It sounds like one of those classic achilles injuries where he thought he was kicked, but no one kicked him unfortunately.”

Bombers winger Xavier Duursma was taken to hospital after a knee to his ribs from Eagles ruckman Matt Flynn in the dying minutes.

“We think he’s fine, but he’s gone to hospital just as a precaution to make sure,” Scott said.

“He said he’s never been winded like that, but when you have something like that, they’ve just got to double check it.”

For West Coast, Jake Waterman kicked four goals - all in the first quarter - while Jeremy McGovern (23 disposals) was a rock in defence.

Tim Kelly collected 22 disposals and three clearances in his first match back from being dropped to the WAFL, and Elijah Hewett (22 disposals, five clearances, two goals) played his best match of the season.

Harley Reid was restricted to 17 disposals and three clearances, and his heavy first-quarter bump on Archie Roberts could come under scrutiny.

West Coast tallied an AFL record-low 77 contested possessions against Carlton last week, but they produced 35 alone in the opening quarter against Essendon as Waterman took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Alarm bells were ringing for Essendon when Jamie Cripps kicked a goal early in the second quarter to stretch the margin to 29 points.

But it was the Wright show from that point on, with Essendon’s clearance dominance (37-22 for the match) giving the Bombers spearhead enough opportunities to kick a big bag.

It was Wright’s first AFL match of the season, with an ankle injury keeping him out of action until a VFL practice match last week.

“It was clearly a much improved performance,” West Coast coach Andrew McQualter said, in reference to last week’s 71-point loss to Carlton.

“Really disappointing not to get a win.

“I thought we put ourselves in a really winnable position ... and even being able to dominate the last quarter, but we just weren’t able to score throughout that last quarter.”

AAP

Essendon coach Brad Scott gave the five words Bombers fans would least like to hear in his post-game press conference after a nail-biting two-point win over the Eagles.

“It looks like an Achilles,” was his simple answer when asked about the health of star ruckman Sam Draper, an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, after he went down in the final term with no one around him.

“The severity of it... we’re concerned about it.

“I’m sort of reluctant to make any big statements about it, because we don’t know for sure, but at three-quarter-time he had some calf tightness on the other side, which I was rightly concerned about, and we were concerned about.

“He felt a tight calf in the third quarter, he played out the quarter, felt fine, was right to go, and he went down.

“I just assumed it was that calf, but it was actually the Achilles on his other leg.”

Scott also gave an update on the versatile Xavier Duursma, who was in obvious discomfort late in the clash.

“Duursma, we think, is fine – he’s just gone to hospital just as a precaution.

“He got a pretty heavy knee to the abdomen [in the latter stages of the game]. The message to me [from the medical staff] was, ‘Look, we think he’s fine, but we’ve just got to check’.

“I spoke to him post-game – he said he’s never been winded like that, but when you have something like that, you’ve just got to double-check it.”

Bombers star Nic Martin fed off his home-town crowd.Credit: AFL Photos

Bombers star Nic Martin took the final mark of the game and booted the ball away in absolute delight on the half-back line after the siren sounded.

“It is a good win, and we know how tough an environment Optus Stadium is, especially against the Eagles, so we expected a tough battle,” the West Australian 24-year-old said of the game in front his family and friends.

“We knew they were going to throw a punch, especially after last week’s performance [against the Blues] so we’re really pleased with the result.

“We did get a bit ahead of ourselves [early], getting ahead of the footy, and just didn’t play to our brand, so [it was] just [about] coming back to our process, our brand, and I think we persevered.”

Martin finished with a game-high 26 touches and 12 marks.

Fox Footy is reporting that Sam Draper is on crutches in the rooms. On the coverage, Will Schofield said he’d spoken to some within the Essendon camp and said the big man had, indeed, suffered the dreaded Achilles injury.

The timing couldn’t be worse, not only for the Bombers (who lost Nick Bryan to an ACL last week), but for Draper, who’s set to be an unrestricted free agent after the end of the season.

Sam Draper limping off the ground (left), and flying high earlier in the game.Credit: Getty Images

Peter Wright booted six goals in his return for the Bombers.Credit: AFL Photos

Ever the humble performer, Peter Wright said he simply “got on the end of a few” as he kicked six goals in his first senior game since Round 20 last year.

“I think [as] a key forward... you just want to win your contests the whole time,” Wright said on Fox Footy after his match-winning turn.

“[I felt] I was able to do that for large parts of the game, regardless of getting on the end of a few.

“We got some good service [from the players further up the ground] in the second half, but [it was just about] bringing that contest, halving it, and trying to allow us to play a forward-half game.”

It’s a two-point win to Essendon. West Coast were making one last flurry forward, but Nic Martin made the stop. It was only a chest mark, but the moment needed composure. And West Australian product Martin had that composure in spades.

A great finish in the end. Essendon easily had the better of the final 40 minutes, staging a good comeback, but the Eagles were hard to shake in the last term.

HUGE relief for Essendon.

Essendon 11.11 (77) d. West Coast 11.9 (75)

Essendon’s Peter Wright.Credit: Getty Images