After conceding the highest score in the competition for 2024 so far, Essendon’s defensive woes have continued to cause concern about their ceiling this season.
Injuries to Jordan Ridley (quad) and Zach Reid (hamstring) spread Essendon’s defensive stocks thinner than desired, with the late out of Jake Kelly (illness) an extra trouble against a tall Swans forward line featuring Logan McDonald, Hayden McLean and Joel Amartey.
The 131 points that the Bombers surrendered on Saturday night couldn’t just be put down to a lack of personnel unfortunately, with several key stat lines putting their defensive six in hot water.
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North Melbourne champion David King didn’t hold back in his assessment of Essendon defensively on Fox Footy’s First Crack, posing questions over the change in output since Brad Scott’s arrival last season.
“I scratch my head; I see Ross Lyon go to St Kilda and make it bulletproof straight away… It’s almost the same movie all the time [at Essendon],” King exclaimed.
“This (on Saturday) is a poor performance defensively, nothing’s really changing so I’m just wondering, if we’re not seeing it now from the pre-season period — how are we going to see it through the course of the year.”
The rampant Swans scored 72 points from their 19 marks inside forward 50, emphasising Essendon’s inability to bring the ball to ground and giving opposition forwards too much space.
On the contrary, the Bombers only managed seven intercept marks as a whole for the match – three less than what Tom Stewart had alone for the Cats against Adelaide last
Friday night.
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Essendon’s 21 spoils were also minuscule in size compared to Sydney’s 43, with Nick Blakey, Tom McCartin, Lewis Melican and Dane Rampe out-spoiling Essendon collectively by four.
While the Bombers’ defence let them down at crucial times on Saturday, it should also be noted that efforts in their midfield left them under siege throughout.
Sydney managed to kick 33 points from centre clearances – their second-best effort in the last 12 months — despite having fewer centre clearances than Essendon in the match.
King elaborated on the worrying methods that Essendon conceded in Round 2.
“5.7 (37) from defensive 50 chains – they’ve only had three games worse than that since the start of 2018,” King added.
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“I know there’s a lot of growth in this group and they did a lot of things really well, but in the end, they had a big score put to them again – 131 points.”
“The easy answer is to say ‘the Swans are a good side’ – you let them play like that, and they’ll be a good side.”
Despite their weekend to forget, King noted that Essendon’s defence did “put some passages of play together that were really good”.
The Bombers will be looking to redeem themselves against St Kilda on Saturday evening at Marvel Stadium.
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