A STUNNING third term has seen Essendon come from almost five goals down to demolish
The Bombers recovered from a 27-point deficit during the second quarter – as well as the early loss of forward Scott Lucas to a knee injury – to slot seven goals to one in the third term to streak away to a 19.8 (122) to 9.13 (67) victory.
Essendon booted 17 of the last 19 goals of the match and had 11 different goal-kickers compared to North
Matthew Lloyd led the scoring charge with six goals, followed by Nathan Lovett-Murray with four.
Nathan Thompson, lining up for his first senior match in more than 12 months after recovering from knee surgery, was the Kangas’ main contributor with four goals.
It was a memorable victory for the Bombers, their first under new senior coach Matthew Knights.
However, the win has come at a hefty price with Lucas limping off late in the first term with a suspected ruptured posterior cruciate ligament which could sideline him for at least six weeks.
The Roos had their own injury concerns with forward Corey Jones, playing his first match since last year’s qualifying final, leaving the field after a heavy knock in the first term and failing to return.
With the Archer-Hird Medal up for the grabs for the first time, it wasn't surprising it was a bash-and-crash affair with players vying to claim the prize that best symbolises the ethos of former champs Glen Archer and James Hird.
The award went to the hard-working McVeigh, who ran all afternoon to find 31 classy possessions.
While Lloyd and Lovett-Murray were effective up forward, Adam Ramanauskas was in fine touch running out of defence and Bachar Houli was impressive on Roos' midfielder Brent Harvey.
Dustin Fletcher too was solid in defence and Courtenay Dempsey showed plenty of promise.
For the Roos, the usual suspects in Harvey, Shannon Grant and Adam Simpson collected plenty of the ball while Thompson kicked four, but their work wasn't enough to counteract Lloyd, who could not be stopped by either Michael Firrito or Josh Gibson.
It was the ferocity of the game that caused both sides to lose those key figures in the opening term – Jones leaving the field at the two-minute mark to receive stitches to a cut head, and Lucas almost 20 minutes later.
With three first-half goals, Lloyd was looming as the go-to man for Essendon in the absence of Lucas.
However his counterpart at the other end, Nathan Thompson, matched the Bombers' skipper's tally of three majors. Thompson had plenty of support from lively young forward Lindsay Thomas – who booted three and ensured the Roos held a 15-point lead at quarter-time.
Two quick majors to the blue and white early in the second suggested a blow-out was on the cards, and with Lucas in the rooms and the other Essendon forwards failing to make an impact, it was hard to see the Bombers staging a comeback.
Enter Lloyd. The spearhead, clearly not content with sitting back and watching his side dismantled by a hard-hitting North Melbourne outfit, slotted three goals for the term – the last of which followed up a six-pointer from Jason Johnson that saw his side take a seven-point lead into the main break.
From there, Essendon simply refused to look back. It slotted seven goals to the Roos' paltry one, and the result was a 71-point turnaround in just over two quarters. Lloyd had five by the final break, Lovett-Murray three, and the Bombers collectively held a 44-point lead over last year's preliminary finalists.
The Roos rallied somewhat in the fourth and kicked two goals, but the Bombers went on to take home the four points and second spot on the ladder.
North Melbourne will need to regroup before it meets
Essendon 2.0 8.2 15.5 19.8 (122)
GOALS
Essendon: Lloyd 6, Lovett-Murray 4, Lucas, Ramanauskas, Laycock, Johnson, McVeigh, Hille, Watson, Davey, Fletcher
BEST
Essendon: McVeigh, Lloyd, Watson, Fletcher, Ramanauskas, Houli, Dempsey
INJURIES
Essendon: Lucas (knee)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Stevic, Nicholls, McInerney
Official crowd: 48,100 at Telstra Dome
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
