AFL fans cringe at ’worst quarter of season’ in Essendon’s clash with Adelaide

Adelaide met Essendon at Docklands Stadium in round 17 but the game hardly lived up to its coveted Friday night timeslot.

The clash began as a dour affair, with both sides trading behinds for over 20 minutes before a major score was kicked.

Both teams appeared reluctant to apply pressure off the ball but eventually Essendon rose to the occasion and began to take charge.

The visitors entered forward 50 just 12 times across the opening two stanzas, which was the lowest total in a first half so far this season.

When they did make it to deep into Essendon’s territory, the Crows struggled to execute.

Adelaide recorded 33.3% efficiency inside 50 for just nine points to half time. Matthew Nicks’ side looked to be missing the panache of key forward Taylor Walker, who stayed behind in Adelaide after suffering a neck injury against Brisbane last week.

Fox Footy’s commentary team questioned why the game had been chosen as the weekend’s Friday night fixture, especially when top eight sides the Swans and Bulldogs are set to meet later in the weekend.

“We like celebrating great games of footy, and this ain’t one of them,” Melbourne legend Garry Lyon said at halftime.

“(Friday night footy) is the show that people want to watch and right now, we’re not really doing Friday night footy justice,” added Saints great Nick Riewoldt.

Premiership-winning forward Jonathan Brown called the contest, or lack thereof, “disappointing”.

Pundits echoed their sentiments on social media.

Adelaide’s season has hit rock bottom after they were held to the lowest score in their history by a far superior Essendon outfit at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.

The Crows’ score of 2.9.21 was also the lowest ever recorded at the Docklands venue in 971 games and 22 seasons.

It was a dirty night for the Crows on an historic level as they were also held to their lowest ever quarter-time, half-time and three-quarter time scores against Essendon, on the way to suffering their second-worst loss to the Bombers, and their biggest defeat against them in 26 years.

The Bombers kept their finals hopes alive with the effortless dismantling of a woefully lacklustre Adelaide, who were non-competitive for large parts of the match.

And if Essendon kicked straighter in front of goal, the final margin probably would’ve been greater than 63 points.

The hosts kicked the first five goals of the contest, including a pair of long bombs from young gun Archie Perkins, to take total control of the game and swiftly put paid to any semblance of resistance the Crows were offering.

The Crows almost tripled the Bombers for clangers (16-6) in the first term – they would finish the game with 62 to Essendon’s 43 – and failed to kick their first major of the game until an hour after the first bounce.

Adelaide was beaten up around the ball in the midfield and played a predictable brand of footy, refusing to move the ball forward with any fluency to make life for Essendon’s defenders very easy.

The Bombers had a whopping 19 more inside 50s (31-12) in the first half, and ended up smashing the Crows in that category 61-30, as they effortlessly kicked further ahead after half-time to complete a comprehensive victory.

The result saw the Bombers get within two points of the top eight heading into the weekend, but Ben Rutten’s team will probably have to win five of their last six games to give themselves a genuine chance of September action and with tough encounters against GWS, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs awaiting in their run home, they’ll certainly be made to earn it.

Merrett masterclass

Zach Merrett was head and shoulders above the rest, setting up the victory in the first half and finishing the game with 35 disposals, 505 metres gained, eight score involvements and a goal assist. Meanwhile, Archie Perkins positioned himself as the clubhouse leader for the round 17 rising star nomination, ending up with 18 touches, nine score involvements and three goals. He could have had four or five goals, but missed a few easy shots. The Bombers rookie kicked the goal of the night midway through the second term, though, as he broke the Ben Davis tackle and slotted a sensational banana goal from the pocket.

Doedee cleaned up

Tom Doedee had to be subbed off in the first quarter due to concussion after being involved in a spectacular collision with Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti in Essendon’s forward pocket. Doedee came off second best as he flew back with the flight of the ball, and got cannoned into by the Essendon forward coming the other way.

Draper goes for a gallop

Sam Draper set the crowd alight early in the second quarter when he burst clear of the traffic on the wing and took a bounce, but the excitement quickly dissipated when he hacked it forward with an indiscriminate mongrel punt, capping off a curious couple of minutes for the raw ruckman who failed to make the distance from a set shot 35m out beforehand.

No Tex, no Crows

The Crows struggled to win the ball in the middle of the ground, and even on the odd occasion when they did manage to get the ball forward, the absence of injured forward Taylor Walker was telling. Without a genuine focal point in attack, Adelaide stood no chance of kicking a big score.

BOMBERS 2.5 6.8 9.12 11.18 (84)

CROWS 0.2 1.3 2.7 2.9 (21)

LERNER’S BEST Bombers: Merrett, Hind, Langford, Parish, Perkins, Snelling, Redman. Crows: Laird, Jones, Seedsman.

GOALS Bombers: Perkins 3, Wright 2, Hooker, Stringer, Waterman, Jones, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Snelling. Crows: Schoenberg, Murphy.

INJURIES Bombers: Langford (hamstring). Crows: Doedee (concussion).

LATE CHANGE: Elliott Himmelberg (illness) was replaced in Adelaide’s selected side by Will Hamill.

UMPIRES Deboy, Chamberlain, Whetton

VENUE Marvel Stadium

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

LERNER’S VOTES

3 Z.Merrett (Ess)

2 N.Hind (Ess)

1 K.Langford (Ess)