At half-time, the 45,000-plus crowd without Essendon allegiances at Adelaide Oval were entitled to wonder if it was possible to get a refund for their entry.
This wasn’t Essendon’s fault. Having gained confidence from their eclipse of Port Adelaide, the Dons had been sharp with and without the football. Zach Merrett had been predictably productive, Sam Durham was a presence around the ball, Dylan Shiel was continuing his revival, and Jai Menzie had booted three goals.
Simon Goodwin and his Demons are desperately in search of answers, and fast.Credit: AFL Photos
But the story to this point was Melbourne’s awful performance. The Demons had one more forward entry then, but had butchered those forays forward in a now established pattern.
Familiar, too, was Clayton Oliver’s lack of influence or damage – was this the same player who won all those best and fairests and won a seven-year deal for $1.3 million a season?
Christian Petracca was trying, but had been ineffectual – fumbling chances and kicking in hope rather than precision. He wasn’t the player that could turn games upside down.
Their ball movement was sluggish, or haphazard. The signs were terrible.
It did not seem conceivable that the Demons, trailing by a 29-point margin that felt nearly double that, would challenge the Bombers.
At the end, the Demons still fell short and, at 0-5, they are one of two teams without premiership points. If they are far ahead of West Coast, the finals are a faraway galaxy.
The Bombers, led brilliantly by Zach Merrett (pictured), showed real maturity in how they responded to Melbourne’s surge.Credit: AFL Photos
Their third quarter – when they booted five goals to Essendon’s three and actually showed a level of fluency and intensity that has often been missing this year – was welcome for the large portion of fans who were not Demons or Dons and wanted only to see a decent competitive game. But the fact is, Melbourne only scored two goals for the entire first half and eight for the game.
Petracca did raise his level in the third quarter, as did Oliver and Kysaiah Pickett and Jake Melksham, who twice did something that has been rarer than board harmony at Melbourne – he booted to open or advantaged teammates, who marked and goalled.
Bayley Fritsch, another player who had floundered lately, also found some semblance of the form that had mysteriously gone into witness protection in recent times, booting two goals.
The Demons closed to within two goals twice – surely they couldn’t run over the hitherto dominant Dons?
They didn’t.
Brad Scott should be most pleased with the response to Melbourne’s surge, which was authoritative, as the final margin surpassed six goals.
Christian Petracca and his teammates had yet another forgettable night.Credit: AFL Photos
Merrett was relentless in his accumulation (38 disposals), Nic Martin capped off his excellence with an important goal (when Steven May, who had come with an injury early, couldn’t hold a mark), and – most encouraging – Archie Roberts reiterated his promise at half-back. Jordan Ridley was steady, too, behind the ball – the Bombers are much more defensively capable when Ridley is there supporting Mason Redman, Andy McGrath and Ben McKay.
Essendon’s performance is not easily judged, since the Demons were so hopeless in that dismal first half, only showed genuine fight for a quarter and a half, and are in a dishevelled state.
But the Bombers have improved on what they’ve shown in the first four games of 2025, both collectively on an individual level.
They had a game style of out-possessing the Dees, chipping the footy around to open players and making the Demons defend. Their ball use was vastly superior. The major statistical disparity between the teams was in the uncontested disposals, which Essendon finished ahead by 78.
Essendon, thus, is improving. The Demons are stuck in a rut that, if it continues, will make Simon Goodwin’s position parlous.
The premiership of 2021 is as remote from Melbourne as the location where they won it.
For the Dons, there was another victory within the victory: By keeping Melbourne mired near the bottom, they improved the prospect of gaining at least one very early draft pick, since they hold Melbourne’s first pick in 2025.
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