Eleven points separated the two teams at half-time before the Lions took control of the match. The Brisbane midfield was rampant in their team’s second half performance. ""It was a complete and utter dominance by the Brisbane midfielders. If it wasn’t (Michael) Voss, it was (Nigel) Lappin, if it wasn’t him, it was Luke Power or Simon Black.""
The listed four players collected 111 possessions between them – Black was the highest with 32. The Lions forward structure provided many headaches for the Bombers’ back six. Daniel Bradshaw had a night out booting seven goals. ""The ball just kept coming down to the Lions’ forwards. It was very difficult for our backmen to stop the flow of goals,"" Harvey said.
Five of Bradshaw’s seven goals came in the second term. As a result, his opponent Dustin Fletcher was benched. ""Fletcher spent a lot of time on the bench, he just had one of those nights I guess,"" he said.
Harvey said that despite the loss, he was happy with the performance of some of the younger Essendon players. ""We put Brent Stanton on Lappin in the second half and thought that he did a serviceable job. We moved Nathan Lovett-Murray into defence and we thought he was okay,"" he said. ""The form of Ben Haynes was impressive in his first game back. He will get better, but we can’t rely on him making an impact immediately.""
The loss tonight is Essendon’s fourth for the season and came at a price. Sean Wellman injured his hamstring late in the game and came immediately from the ground. Dean Rioli also left the field with a suspected hamstring. Dustin Fletcher (charging) and Damien Peverill (misconduct) will both face the AFL Tribunal this week.
