Some will snigger at the suggestion that Essendon could topple the Premiership favorites this weekend but it has a few things in its favour. Firstly, Essendon has very little to lose on Saturday night – it needs to win three of its final five matches to make the finals and most aren’t counting this as one of those wins. The players can throw off the shackles that have held them back these past few weeks, play their best football and see what happens. Brisbane on the other hand can lose top position and if it can’t win it back, a Preliminary Final at the MCG might await it. Secondly, Essendon is at Colonial Stadium – a ground it knows and plays well, a ground at which Brisbane lost to Collingwood earlier this year. Thirdly, Dustin Fletcher returns, Joe Misiti has a game under his belt and James Hird and Matthew Lloyd are approaching peak fitness after extended spells on the sidelines.
Most believe that Essendon’s form is simply not good enough to win and there is no doubt that they were down in the second half against Richmond last weekend. But the first half was excellent – they ran, created and could easily have been seven goals up at half time had they kicked straight. At times they looked like the Essendon of old. The opposition was struggling but they had plenty to play for with the retirement of Matthew Knights.
It is in the mid-field that Brisbane have over-run opposition sides and it will be interesting to see how Essendon goes about negating them in the middle. The best way is obviously to win the football more than them and use it well. Both those aspects have posed problems for Essendon in recent weeks but that only needs to turn around for them to be highly competitive. The Essendon defence is the best in the competition statistically and any forward line containing Lloyd, Hird and Lucas is capable of kicking a winning score.
Just who the Bombers will tag in the mid-field will be interesting – Michael Voss or Simon Black seem the obvious choices. The match committee might even go with both – Damien Peverill will get one and Chris Heffernan could get the other. He has good defensive skills and aerobic capacity.
Even if these tags break even, the Bombers will have their hands full containing Jason Akermanis, Shaun Hart and the vastly improved Des Headland. By the same token Essendon isn’t short on quality with James Hird, Joe Misiti, Jason Johnson and Justin Blumfield rotating through the centre.
The Essendon half forward line will need to be extremely accountable given the rebound that is created by the likes of Chris Scott, Brad Scott, Chris Johnson and at times Martin Pike. They lay off and run hard through the lines – pressure will need to be applied to cause turnovers.
Essendon needs its stars to stand up on Saturday night. It needs a special from captain James Hird and a bag of goals from Matthew Lloyd. It needs Fletcher to shut down the in-form Lynch and Peverill and Heffernan to do the job in the mid-field. They are all more than capable of coming up with the goods. If the Bombers click this weekend it will send a shudder through the rest of the competition.
