Essendon and Melbourne fans are very quickly beginning to associate Gather Round with each other at this point.
Saturday marks the third of a possible four instalments of the fixture where they’ve faced off against one another, with the Dons gunning to go three-from-three on that front.
It’s an interesting quirk given the recent history (or even lack thereof) between the two – the Clubs haven’t faced off more than once in a season since 2005, with that trend to finally be snapped in July this year.
With the exception of the recent expansion sides, Melbourne are the Bombers’ least played opponent of the last 20 years by that logic – a unique note ahead of their 222nd total encounter.
The Bombers’ resounding 27-point win over the Dees in the inaugural Gather Round iteration was considered a big upset and still ranks among Brad Scott’s best wins at the helm to date.
In the wet, Zach Merrett (35 touches) and Darcy Parish (34 touches) racked it up for fun as the side cruised to one of its highlights of that campaign, with Kyle Langford slotting one of the finest goals of his career.
2025’s edition was even more sweet, the Bombers rebounding from a devastating early ACL injury to Nick Bryan and recording a huge 39-point win on the road.
Archie Roberts earned himself a Rising Star nod, Merrett was again instrumental and Sam Durham’s inspirational chase down tackle on Christian Petracca prevented the Dees from capitalising on a third term comeback.
Mason Redman’s late long bomb put the cherry on top of a terrific winning effort.
The Dees have looked resurgent in the opening rounds of 2026, with the Bombers also taking some momentum into Gather Round off the back of a solid second half against the Dogs last week.
Sullivan Robey is an exciting debut story out of this week, the No.9 pick becoming the Club’s 20th debutant since the start of last season.
The Bombers clash with Melbourne gets underway from 1:15pm AEST (12:45pm local time) at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
