THE MAYOR of Subiaco should be on the phone first thing this morning to his council engineers, asking them to check out the structural integrity of Subiaco Oval’s Eastern Stand.

With less than a minute on the clock in Sunday's pulsating Essendon-Fremantle clash, Adam McPhee threw his body with reckless abandon at a contest with an on-coming Byron Schammer, who had built up a head of steam charging toward goal.

It was the sort of crazy/brave act you wouldn’t ask of a crash test dummy.

The thud as McPhee’s 90kg frame smashed into Schammer rocked the foundations of the stand and reverberated around the stadium.

The ball – and the game – was there to be won. McPhee made sure that Schammer wasn’t going to win it cheaply.

The moment of impact was as sickening as it was awe-inspiring. Both players lay motionless on the ground like the victims of a head-on car crash. The crowd wondered if either would ever get up.

It didn’t matter for McPhee. He had done what needed to be done. Fremantle’s desperate final surge toward goal had been stopped, the ball cleared and the Bombers' four point lead would, in a matter of seconds, become its victory margin.

No wonder coach Matthew Knights marvelled at the courage of his playing squad in his post-match interview, where he revealed that McPhee was already groggy from an earlier hit during the game.

The McPhee-Schammer clash was just the final act in one of the toughest, most physical clashes of the 2008 season. The ferocity with which each side attacked the ball and the contest was breath-taking.

The Bombers paid an early price for their desperation as player after player headed to the interchange bench in the first half for medical attention. McPhee was not alone in needing a couple of painkillers after the match

Jobe Watson was first off under the blood rule in the opening quarter with a gash above his left eye, but returned to collect 36 possessions in his usual relentless fashion.

Andrew Welsh was the next casualty in the second quarter when he bravely put his head down over a loose ball. The only problem was that giant Fremantle ruckman Aaron Sandilands was sliding in the other way like a baseball player intent on using Welsh’s head as home plate. A handful of stitches and some bandaging, and Welsh was back to continue pestering Freo young gun Rhys Palmer.

Less than 10 minutes later, David Myers was heading to the bench with blood spilling from a nose which was split so straight it looked like the work of a trained surgeon. Myers also returned to the fray after the Bombers’ medical team had worked their magic.

The medicos were so busy that it took several minutes for them to notice that fullback Dustin Fletcher was in trouble with what turned out to be a fractured hand.

In between the carnage were moments of magic from Leroy Jetta, goal-scoring heroics from Adam Ramanauskas and David Hille, and stoic defence from Paddy Ryder and Nathan Lovett-Murray.

But the story of this game was the courage of the emerging Bombers – perfectly captured in one brilliant moment of bone-crunching, match-saving desperation from Adam McPhee.