Essendon – 16.14 (110)
St Kilda – 16.12 (108)
Essendon held off a fast finishing St Kilda side to be the first team to genuinely put their hand up for the eighth position on the ladder. In doing so they also ended St Kilda’s impressive run of wins and although the four points are insignifigant in the context of the St Kilda season, there is no doubting they would have preffered to remain un-beaten.
Big moment
At the 29 minute mark of the first quarter Essendon were 2 goals down and St Kilda looked to be in cruise control. Enter Dustin Fletcher. Fletcher unloaded with what looked like a 70 meter plus kick to me which bounced in the goal square and went through for a goal, it was the moment you knew the Dons were prepared to take risks and weren’t going to die wondering.
Key players for Essendon
Jobe Watson – Continually won the ball at stoppages and proved to be a real head ache for St Kilda early. Watson had 37 disposals (15 contested and 6 clearances), 8 tackles and a goal by games end.
Angus Monfries– Really damaging when Essendon set up their match winning lead, wasn’t paid enough respect and he punished St Kilda with 4 goals and 20 touches.
Michael Hurley – Hit contests hard and looks to be coming along nicely for Essendon, kicked a goal before moving back to cover for Fletcher and showed clean hands all game finishing with 10 marks and 20 touches.
Key players for St Kilda
Nick Dal Santo – Really put to bed any doubts about his work rate for mine as he ran hard to firstly keep St Kilda in the game and then to try and win it. 27 disposals, 7 tackles and a goal were fair reward for effort.
Leigh Montagna – The other St Kilda midfielder who really worked hard all game, Montagna had an impressive 9 tackles and accumulated 25 disposals along the way.
Justin Koschitzke – ‘Kosi’ was defiately switched on for this game and with a bit more/improved supply looked likely to make the difference, ran harder than I have ever seen him run, marked the ball cleanly and kicked 3 goals in an impressive performance.
Musings from the match
• Essendon have their destiny in their own hands after this win, but with the injuries they accumulated to Fletcher, Dempsey, Ryder and Stanton will it matter.
• St Kilda would have learnt more from this loss than they would have had Nick Riewoldt stole the game after the siren.
• St Kilda’s backline is too tall.
• Lovett-Murray was very foolish giving away that free kick- the umpire went up to the players and warned them before the previous goal.
• The umpiring was inconsistant without effecting the result.
• Lenny Hayes went off in the first quarter into the rooms to get his arm looked at. (looked like and elbow problem)
• Dawson, Hudghton, Blake, Clarke, Dempster and Armitage are all potential candidates to lose their spot in the St Kilda team next week.
• St Kilda looked lethargic for most of the game, it wasn’t until the last quarter that they showed any real urgancy.
• Jobe Watson is a gun.
SuperCoach news
Jobe Watson is a gun. Jobe Watson is a gun. Jobe Watson is a gun. 196 SuperCoach Points for Jobe in one of his most influential performances yet for mine. He was joined by 4 of his mates for 100+ scores with Monfries 154 points being the other notable score.
Only Montagna and Dal Santo could crack the 100 point barrier for the Saints with scores of 148 and 122 respectively.
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