ESSENDON 2.2 3.8 5.8 9.10.64 SYDNEY 3.5 7.6 10.11 14.12.96 Result: SYDNEY won by 32 points. Venue: North Sydney Oval     Crowd: -

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	ESSENDON: Jason Laycock 3, Brent Stanton, Scott Lucas, Andrew Lovett, Adam Ramanauskas, Mark Bolton, Jobe Watson
	SYDNEY: Matthew Nicks 2, Luke Taylor 2, David Spriggs, Sean Dempster, Ryan O'Keefe, Mark Powell, Amon Buchanan, Steven Doyle, Adam Schneider, Nic Fosdike, Craig Bolton, Darren Jolly VOTE FOR YOUR CISCO'S COFFEE GOAL OF THE DAY Win a coffee machine valued at $1500! Click here to vote

Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy has compared improving youngster Jason Laycock to former club champion Paul Salmon. Laycock was one of the shining lights in the wake of his side’s 32-point loss to Sydney at North Sydney Oval tonight. Laycock kicked three goals in the final quarter when pushed forward and could easily have kicked five. "If he keeps playing like he did tonight he has got a huge role to play for us," Sheedy said. "If he keeps working hard in the next six weeks and gets to round one we will be pretty pleased with his performance." "The kid could end up being a very, very mobile Paul Salmon – they are not that much unalike. It would be rare to have a Lloyd and Paul Salmon-type player in your forward line." "In the 1980s we had a forward line of (Terry) Daniher, (Paul) Van Der Haar and (Roger) Merrett when Paul Salmon came along and that was pretty hard to combat," Sheedy said. "If we can get Laycock up and a couple of other boys back in the side we will have a pretty powerful forward line and you will need a lot of tall defenders to cover them and not many clubs have a lot of tall defenders." The Bombers struggled to match it with a very slick Sydney outfit for much of the night but didn’t help their cause with some sloppy kicking for goal. Essendon also turned the ball over constantly and paid the penalty on more than one occasion. Apart from Laycock, Kepler Bradley also performed well for the Bombers at centre half back. His disposal let him down at times but he got enough of the football and competed at a level that makes him look a likely starter in round one. Brent Stanton ran hard and got a lot of the football while Andrew Lovett and Ricky Dyson also showed some positive signs as did Jobe Watson. Joel Reynolds played a half and moved well. Of the senior players, Dustin Fletcher and Mark McVeigh were the most constructive. James Hird played the first half of the match but had little influence on the game. Essendon was missing David Hille, Mark Johnson, Jason Johnson, Matthew Lloyd, Dean Rioli and Dean Solomon among others.

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