ON TRACK TO BE TRUSTED
Essendon never make it easy, do they?
When I started making notes for this blog during the first quarter of Friday night’s game against Collingwood, it was a very different tone to say the least. After Zach Merrett’s opener, it was all the Magpies and the Bombers looked like they were destined for another post-bye belting!
One of the first notes I made only a few minutes into the game was about trust. Potentially, there hasn’t been a bigger question about this Essendon team in 2024 than can you trust them?
Early on in Friday night’s contest, the answer seemed simple.
No.
Collingwood was murdering the Dons at the clearance. Ball movement was slow, and deadly sloppy. The defence was taking unnecessary risks out of D-50 and the matchups looked all wrong! Brad Scott seemed like a mannequin of himself in the coaches box – seemingly unfazed by what was looking to be a revived Pies juggernaut.
By the dying stages of the first quarter, the scoreline read 5.2.32 to 1.5.11. There was a familiar feeling watching on the television, an eerie sense of déjà vu. Something … very 2023 about what had just happened. And then, Jake Stringer. What transpired after the Package slotted that goal after the quarter time siren seemed entirely alien to what had occurred prior. It felt like a body snatchers kind of moment – that the entire team had been replaced.
After allowing five goals in the first quarter, Essendon only allowed three in the next two quarters, with later goals in the final quarter tightening the contest more than it probably should have. The Bombers that came out post-quarter time were electric. The ball-movement was faster, tackling more ferocious, desire risen. It’s hard for us in our living rooms and in the stands to truly understand what caused the change, but I think a good guess would involve a man called Zach Merrett.
Zach Merrett was masterful in his performance in the Dons first win over the Pies since 2021.
He is simply elite. Another All-Australian blazer is locked in, surely – and just perhaps the captaincy, too.
Merrett’s intensity is genuinely unmatched. His desire to win the ball is insane. His decision making was mature, swift and clinical. The skipper’s efforts were assisted by a peculiar lack of pressure on him by any Magpies ‘tagger’. Collingwood’s willingness to allow Merrett off the chain was key to their undoing. His 30 disposals, one goal and a crazy 15 score involvements proves it.
But Merrett wasn’t the only one who impressed. Jye Caldwell (30 disposals, one goal and seven tackles) was powerful and Dylan Shiel (26 disposals and eight tackles) really worked his way into the game and impacted plenty in the centre. Not bad for just his second game of the season. Harrison Jones was exciting again down the wing with 17 disposals, one goal and six marks – many just when the team needed it. Ben McKay remained solid down back with 11 marks, though his disposal remains his greatest question mark.
But not to be forgotten was third gamer, Nate Caddy. He’s the kind of player that just brings a smile to your face. Six marks, 12 disposals and one goal that could easily have been more. It was the kind of game that you point to and know that Caddy needs to play every week for the rest of the year.
He is one of those rare breeds that … SIMPLY. MUST. PLAY.
On the other side of things, there were plenty of negatives, but they weren’t any different to weeks gone by. So, where to from here?
When I started writing this blog, I wondered about trust. Can this Bombers team be trusted to perform in the way they’ve shown they can, not just from time to time, but consistently? Last week’s loss to Geelong was potentially the biggest red flag of the season to Essendon’s claims of legitimacy. Any belief that they can truly be trusted in the way fans want felt delusional. But Friday night, though not a perfect exclamation mark on the Dons declaration of legitimacy, showed that perhaps they’re not far off.
Moments after the game, commentators and reporters alike began to declare that Essendon had finally taken the scalp everyone wanted to see them take and that perhaps the team finally was the real deal. But that’s how the media is – too quick to judge in both directions.
Personally, I’m not sold … yet.
The Bombers were victorious over the Demons in their last outing, during Gather Round in 2023.
The victory over the Pies in front of 80,000 on Friday night at the MCG was terrific. But they need to do it again. And again. And again. And again. This Saturday night, the club has a chance to take out another side vying for the top eight in Melbourne, and really build a case for true legitimacy.
It’s been a tough six weeks with more losses than wins, but you’re only as good as your last win and last week was a good one. The club remains in the top four, for now. A victory over the Demons would nearly solidify it.
The opposite would bring the team right back into the pack.
If Essendon truly want to be trusted by the footy world, a win over the Dees on Saturday is simply non-negotiable.
Go Planes.