THE SYDNEY Swans have lost a thrillingclash to Essendon by just one point at the SCG on Saturday night.
Despite leading by three points atthree-quarter time, the Swans couldn’t hold off the Bombers, who scoredarguably their best win of the season 11.8 (74) to 11.7 (73).
Essendon booted the first three goals ofthe final term to set up their win although there will be plenty of talkingpoints from the match, including what seemed to be a contentious goal at the23-minute mark of the last quarter.
Essendon’s Mark McVeigh kicked a clevergoal after teammate Adam McPhee had kicked the ball from further afield – buttelevision replays appeared to show the defender stepping out of bounds beforedoing so.
The Swans were pushing hard for a winner inthe dying seconds of the match, with Amon Buchanan hitting the post with oneshot at goal to bring his side within a point.
However the home side ran out of time asthe Bombers held on to win and secure the four points.
Buchanan was among his team’s best alongwith defender Craig Bolton who did a superb job blanketing Scott Lucas.
The Swans were caught napping early as arevved-up Essendon outfit booted the first four goals of the game inside 10minutes to silence the home crowd.
But 150-gamer Nic Fosdike kicked his side’sopener to start his milestone match in fine style.
Essendon replied but a long running goal toSean Demspter, followed by a clever snap to Nick Davis reduced the deficit tojust 11 points at the first break.
The Bombers again kicked away in the earlypart of the second term, increasing their advantage to 17 points before
Paul Bevan further cut the gap and thenAdam Schneider kicked a long bomb from outside 50m and suddenly the Swans werewithin a kick.
From the ensuing centre bounce, Adam Goodesbroke free and hit teammate Michael O’Loughlin on the chest.
When the evergreen goalkicker threaded thesticks deep in time-on, the Swans led for the first time in the match and tooka two-point lead into half-time.
The third term was a dour affair and whilethe Bombers had their chances to gain the upper hand, they wasted some chancesin front of goal.
Despite both sides having their chancesjust one goal was kicked for the term – that coming to Goodes at the 16-minutemark as the Swans led 8.4 (52) to 7.7 (49) at the last change.
The last quarter had it all but the Swansfell short, and will need to be at their best when they take on Hawthorn at theMCG next week.
ESSENDON 5.1 7.2 7.7 11.8 (74)
SYDNEY 3.2 7.4 8.4 11.7 (73)
GOALS
Essendon: M Lloyd3 M Bolton 2 M McVeigh 2 A Welsh M Johnson J Watson B Stanton.
Sydney: N Davis 3 N Fosdike S Dempster PBevan A Schneider M O'Loughlin A Goodes B Hall C Bolton.
BEST
Essendon: DFletcher M McVeigh M Johnson M Michael J Hird B Stanton.
Sydney: A Schneider B Kirk T Richards TKennelly J Bolton A Buchanan.
INJURIES
Essendon: D Peverill(general soreness) replaced in selected side by J Nash.
Sydney: Nil.
Reports: Nil.
Crowd: 26,647 at the SCG.
