He looked as frustrated as he has all year. “It was a horrible game by us,” Hardwick said. Of a dozen matches decided by a goal or less, they haven’t won any of them. They made some bad errors in the dying minutes. They had a stack of inside-50s, but so many of them were dump-and-hopes. Tigers coach Damian Hardwick was filthy afterwards, and he had every right to be. In a team that’s all about control and process, Stringer brought some much-needed unpredictability. He only had half a dozen touches to three-quarter time, but he exploded into action in the final term. Stringer is not one of those footballers.

There are footballers you can set your watch to and footballers you can build a club around. Jake Stringer is a very different footballer to Merrett, but he too had a role to play. He absorbed the mayhem of Richmond’s game, and the weight of their midfield talent, and exited the MCG carrying a glass sculptured boomerang as best afield.

All night, he made neat little incisions. There was nothing unhinged about his game. He’s a very good footballer who carried a young, emerging midfield and dragged them across the line. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.īut Merrett isn’t Ron Andrews. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. A bit of killer Kohli and relentless Kobe.” skip past newsletter promotion “In Merrett, the Bombers get an open book. “In Merrett they have a fighter, a prick if you like,” the column wound up. Earlier this year, he was the subject of a highly caffeinated piece that implored him to play ‘unhinged’ football. And all night, the Bombers seemed destined to come up a goal or two short.īut even when Richmond edged ahead, the Bombers maintained their shape and tempo – and their heads. It’s a brave approach against Richmond – Brad’s twin brother Chris tried it for years to no avail. They had 154 marks, the most of any team this year. The Tigers poke it, thump it, hoik it, scrub it, scunge it – just get the effin’ thing moving forward seems to be the basic policy. Right from the beginning, the Dreamtime match was a contrast of styles. Those long Richmond possession chains, that Richmond energy, that Richmond swagger – it was all on show a week ago. To rub it in, the yellow and blacks had returned to form.

The Tigers have handled the Bombers with contempt for a decade, with 13 wins on the trot, eight of them Dreamtime games with an average winning margin of five goals. Wins against Richmond had become a distant memory for Essendon. Photograph: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos/Getty Images They just needed a win.īomber Jake Stringer evades the tackle of Tiger Dylan Grimes in Dreamtime round at the MCG. Yet, early in the 2023 season, Essendon put on a brave show against three of the outstanding teams of the competition – Collingwood, Port Adelaide and Brisbane. Their willing but undersized defenders have been monstered by some of the bigger key forwards. There were years of bad habits to unlearn. But Scott was upfront right from the beginning. This year offered a clean slate – a new coach, captain, president, CEO, gameplan and hope. Ever since Stephen Dank waddled into Windy Hill, nothing’s gone right for the Bombers. “I will never understand what Essendon fans have gone through over the last decade,” Essendon coach Brad Scott said following Saturday night’s Dreamtime match. And then, right at the death, Essendon ended a losing streak stretching back to 2014. At the same ground, four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy was belting out Archie Roach songs to 80,000 people, while a knucklehead allegedly glassed a spectator in the MCG’s Legends Room. Later that night, Aboriginal children and elders were dancing with champion footballers.

Richmond observer