News

Knights looking forward to Sunday's challenge

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Jessica Cook for essendonfc.com.au
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Essendon coach, Matthew Knights says his side is looking forward to another big challenge this week when they take on ladder leaders St. Kilda.

The Bombers’ delivered their third audacious upset of the season last week and are looking for back-to-back wins come Sunday.

Knight’s believes that the key to winning the game will be matching St. Kilda in the contested areas of the game and not underestimating the multitude of talented players they will field.

“St. Kilda was a top four team last year and have taken their game to a new level this year,” he said.

“They have a lot of talent, their players are mature too- you can’t underestimate that especially with players like Goddard, Montagna, Dal Santo, Riewoldt and Koschitzke upfront and Fisher is a super player up back.

“They look very strong; their form-line for the first part of the year is impeccable, they are up there with Geelong as the best two teams in the competition.

“We run into challenges like this every week, at 4-3 we just have our heads above water with our win/loss.

“Whatever happens Sunday we are keen to play to our full potential and see what the by-product of that is.”

To watch the Knights media conference on Bomber.tv click here

Knights said that for his team to walk away with a win this week, they cannot afford to drop off their aggression and intensity at the ball that they showed against Hawthorn.

“We need to match St. Kilda in attack and the contested areas. When we played at the Gabba, against Brisbane, they towelled us up in the contested ball, they were too good,” he said.

“Against Hawthorn, we were able to match players like Brad Sewell and Luke Hodge on the inside, where they are so good and we were competitive which have us the chance to execute our game plan.

“We will be concentrating on that during the week and then come out and have a real crack at them on the weekend.”

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A strong performance in the VFL from Scott Lucas and promising returns from injury from Darcy Daniher, Michael Hurley and Brent Prismall means Knights will face some tough selection pressure for this week’s game and in the coming weeks.

“As we have a Sunday game we won’t finalise our 22 till Thursday. Scott went back and did himself proud, he kicked four goals but more importantly effort and movement was a lot better,” he said.

“After having a good game last week I wouldn’t think there would be too many changes to our line up. Again we’ll finalise our 22 on Thursday and that will be the first time we let the players know too.”

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dont change anything knighta! we need the team to be the same! they played awesomely last week, and we need a bit of consistency in the lineup so we can build on our team dynamic!!! All the boys from last week deserve to be in this weeks team! GO DONS!

- Amber Langham (posted 12/05/2009 12:25:57 PM)

Watched most of last night's game and the Sainters were scaringly awesome all over the ground. Their skills are flawless. They are creative particularly in tight contests passing with pin point accuracy and tackling like their lives depended on it. Based on what I witnessed last Friday night, I think our boys can take the game right up to them but they'll have to resist being overwhelmed by St Kilda's fast growing reputation.

- Adrianne Blainey (posted 12/05/2009 1:24:05 PM)

Agreed Amber, Friday night was the first game where we showed real consist good play throughout the entire game. I didn't throw anything at the tv at all!! Go Bombers, take it to 'em on Sunday!! We all love a good upset! :)

- Kim Kramarczuk (posted 12/05/2009 1:36:47 PM)

Probably the only change would be Nash for myers. Thought he look a bit out of touch and Nash is one of our best disposers of the ball

- John Baker (posted 12/05/2009 2:30:31 PM)

hell no do not bring nash in

- Matthew Holloway (posted 12/05/2009 3:16:37 PM)

Very impressed with Angus Monfries game on Friday night and really this year he has been very good. Puts his body on the line all the time and his marking is exceptional for his size. He is certainly developing into a very good footballer

- Erin O'Brien (posted 12/05/2009 3:45:49 PM)

Hooray, someone else finally admitting Myers isn't up to it (yet). Also agree Nash must come back, he really hasn't been given an opportunity after doing little wrong last year.

- Matt Dawson (posted 12/05/2009 4:03:39 PM)

Don't read too much into St.Kilda's win last night. Collingwood is only an ordinary side and had some huge outs. It will all be psychological this week... we need to run and attack, regardless of the score or St.Kilda's tactics. Make no mistake, St.Kilda will go ultra-defensive against us, so we can't go into our shells.

- Matt Dawson (posted 12/05/2009 4:12:32 PM)

to win againts another great side would be awesome although last night looked a bit like a training run i was impressed with the saints attack and commitment to the man and the contest to keep the pies to 1-6 untill halftime shows what sort of respect they demand will be a great challenge one i'm sure our boys are up to

- Simon Mayo (posted 12/05/2009 4:37:15 PM)

yeah,dont change anything Knight!They played awesome last week and I LOVE IT!!!! We need to bit ST.KILDA!!! GO BOMBERS!!!!! KEEP WINNING!!!!!

- """"♥Princess Lloyd♥"""" (posted 12/05/2009 4:47:29 PM)

Another tough, challenging match coming up certainly, and I'll be going out on a limb and tipping the Dons to snap the Saints' winning streak. Don't know why. I just have a little inkling. Anyway, our formline so far has gone loss, win, win, loss, win, loss, win, and we might just back it up again this week. Go Bombers!

- Maranatha Sao-Mafiti (posted 12/05/2009 5:11:34 PM)

Very hard decision for the coaches. I was very pleased with the team that played against Hawthorn on Friday night. Leave as is!!

- Samantha Kisielis (posted 12/05/2009 5:26:22 PM)

The bombers are simply too quick. Keep moving the ball at pace and back yourselves and everything else will work out. Zaharakis needs to be individually coached by James Hird.

- Billy Christian (posted 12/05/2009 5:33:08 PM)

also the one thinbg we need to be consistent with is converting. We were great at that last week but against brisbane was shocking.

- Noah Smyth (posted 12/05/2009 5:47:46 PM)

One swallow does not make a summer & Lucas should certainly be considered, judging from his past performances against the saints

- Winston D'Cruz (posted 12/05/2009 6:16:27 PM)

Play your own game bombers.No changes this week.We've got 'em off a short week.Run,run,run bombers!St.Kilda have a psychological chink in their armour when it comes to Essendon-pressure will expose it.We've upset em in the past,we can do it again.Above all,DON"T BE INTIMIDATED!We have weapons too!Use them!

- Mark Elze (posted 12/05/2009 7:10:27 PM)

Saints were pretty good last night, but i got a feeling we're up to upsetting them this Sunday. Just make sure we have the support when they swarm 3 on 1 like they did against Collingwood. Gotta make sure we have somewhere to get the ball to and not just empty space. If we back each other up like last week, we'll get 'em. Go Bombers!

- Daylan Pearce (posted 12/05/2009 7:43:05 PM)

He is just underdone Matt, besides even underdone he is a better option than Nash.

- Matthew Holloway (posted 12/05/2009 7:47:25 PM)

Matthew, what's your problem with nash???

- Jeff Skinner (posted 12/05/2009 9:12:06 PM)

How's collingwood and carlton having excuses. Collingwood had injuries but what about us we had the youngest backline i can remember we did'nt have our number 1 or 2 ruckman we had foward's under 40 games, missing fletch, hille, mcveigh, and more. That's why we are a great club no excuses we don't tank and by not doing so we have a team of players who have heart and never say die that's what our club is all about and we will be the better for it. Carlton looked like a team full of whinger's Fevola cracking the shi# a team full of ego's.

- Jeddy Telescourt (posted 12/05/2009 9:22:08 PM)

St Kilda. The Red and The Black can beat them ........ Lucas should be considered. Hard at the contest / kicking accurately will win us the game. GO BOMBERS!!!!!!

- Victor Tallis (posted 14/05/2009 2:36:13 PM)

bring in nash for slattery then we will lower our turnovers and frees on the backline

- don carter (posted 14/05/2009 2:43:48 PM)

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