Essendon was more shattered than most when the Brisbane Lions decided to move their home base from Carrara Oval on the Gold Coast to the Gabba. And fair enough to - the Bombers and the Lions met at Carrara on five occasions prior to the move and the Bombers won all five encounters convincingly. Carrara was almost the Bombers home away from home. But how things changed with the shift into Brisbane and the Gabba. Essendon lost four in a row at the new venue - including a heartbreaking one-point loss in the 1996 Qualifying Final. But things are starting to turn and the Bombers will be hoping that trend continues this Saturday night.
Essendon has won its past three matches at the Gabba. A four-point win in 1997 was followed by an 18-point win in 1999 and a resounding 64-point win at the venue last season. Clearly Essendon has got better at the Gabba.
Assistant coach Mark Harvey said the 1996 Qualifying Final was clearly the turning point. ""We were obviously disappointed to go down by such a narrow margin in 1996 and winning in 1997 really helped to rid ourselves of that memory,"" Harvey said. ""We set ourselves to win that match not only for that reason but also to get the monkey off our back - we hadn't beaten Brisbane at the Gabba since they shifted there.""
Harvey said there was no doubt Essendon had improved the way it played the Gabba. ""It can take a while to learn to play different grounds and we didn't play it well at the start,"" Harvey said. ""The ground is wider than most and we got sucked in to playing wide instead of playing direct football.""
The Gabba is a larger ground than the Bombers home ground - Colonial Stadium. The Gabba runs 170m from goal-to-goal and 149m across. Colonial Stadium is 159m from goal-to-goal and 130m across.
""I think bigger grounds really suit the way we play at the moment - particularly in terms of our leg speed,"" Harvey said. ""We have a lot of players who have good pace over 50m to 100m but they aren't necessarily super quick over the 10 or 20 metres. Given that a bit of space probably suits us a bit.""
""Sometimes when grounds are smaller you need players who are very quick over the first 10m. You can overcome that with quick hands and we have managed to do that. In terms of pace we are probably a middle-of-the-road side.""
Essendon was simply sensational against Brisbane at the Gabba last season winning by 64-points in very wet conditions. The Bombers looked like they were playing dry weather football kicking 19 goals for the match.
The details of that match were:
Essendon 19.13 (127) d Brisbane 9.9 (63).
Goals: Essendon - Lloyd 5, Moorcroft 4, Hird 3, Bewick 2, Blumfield, Caracella, J. Johnson, Lucas, Ramanauskas 1. Brisbane - Akermanis 2, Black, Picken 2, Hart, Molloy, Power 1.
Best: Essendon - Barnes, Blumfield, Caracella, Fletcher, Heffernan, Hird, J. Johnson, Ramanauskas. Brisbane - Black, Heuskes, Picken, Voss.