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Brisbane v Essendon Preview

By Ryan Hadji

Round 6 is shaping up to be an absolute ripper. A derby, A showdown, Hawthorn v Carlton, Brisbane taking on Essendon; there’s plenty of good footy on this weekend to reinstate why our Sport is the greatest on earth!

Neither has been setting the world on fire with their form and I don’t think either side are genuine finals contenders at this stage. One of the most polished Bomber defenders Dustin Fletcher celebrates his 300th game, and their skipper Matthew Lloyd still sits on 899 career goals.

Mitch Clark and Paddy Ryder will battle it out in the ruck, both sandgropers and will get another chance to dominate the ruck after doing the duties last week. Daniel Bradshaw will be itching to bag a few majors after being kept goalless the last 2 weeks. 

Brisbane assistant coach Justin Leppitsch acknowledged the Bombers game style “They’re a team that love to own the corridor and love to use their pace, the Lovetts, players like that, Winderlich’s a quick player, they’ve got a lot of pace that they like to get the ball in their hands and break the lines,” he said. Leppa went on to say what the Lions need to do to shut down the Bomber “They tend to be very handball-happy side until they find those players and break the lines, so our tackling pressure, like every week, is going to have to be exceptional”.

Just like most young sides the Bombers struggle on the road, having lost 4 from 5 matches on the road under Matthew Knights. To add salt to the wound, Essendon’s record isn’t pretty only winning 4 games from 13 starts at the GABBA, their last 9 years ago back in Round 8 2000.

Last week exposed the gap between how far away they are from the best in the business, the question is how long will it take the Lions to be a top 4 side?  Have your say in the ‘How far away are the Lions?’ thread. Ash McGrath has to be lucky to remain in the side considering his form this season, he’ll probably pick up the lively Alwyn Davey, Daniel Merrett will take Mattew Lloyd and Josh Drummond could pick up Jason Winderlich. Both Drummond and Winderlich have had solid seasons so far and this will be a real test for each other as they’ve both got pace and skill.

Bouncedown is 7.10 local time, 5.10 in the West, don’t expect much discussion on this one- the Derby’s on! Provided the weather’s decent, this should be a high-scoring, free-flowing, positive game of footy. Both side’s asset is their midfield- the best should get their team over the line. I’m scratching my head on who to tip, but I think the Bombers are starting to come together and with the Lions confidence shattering loss in wet conditions last Sunday, I think they’ll be too flat for a ripe Essendon outfit, I’m tipping the boys from Windy Hill to get up by under a kick.