Bombers blowout
Gold Coast fails to fire a shot
ESSENDON continued to play the role of top-eight wrecking ball with relish on Sunday night after taking down yet another finals aspirant in Gold Coast by 48 points at Marvel Stadium.
A goal-of-the-year contender from Essendon cult hero Sam Draper capped another memorable day at the office for the Bombers.
The big ruckman collected his own hitout midway through the final quarter, engaged in a one-two with Matt Guelfi, broke the Charlie Ballard tackle and kicked an audacious banana on the run from 20m out to send the black-andred faithful into raptures.
After North Melbourne stunned eighth-placed Richmond on Saturday, the Suns had a golden chance to draw level with the Tigers on nine wins, but they produced their worst effort of the season.
The 14.19 (103) to 8.7 (55) result has served as a big blow to Gold Coast’s dreams of a maiden finals campaign.
To finish in the top eight, the Suns will probably have to win four of their last five games, meaning they will have to beat one of Brisbane or Geelong to have any hope.
Since making their worst start to a season since 2006 (excluding 2016 when they were ravaged by WADA bans), the Bombers have now beaten St Kilda, Sydney, the Lions and
the Suns in what has been a dramatic turnaround in form.
The Bombers cracked 90 points just twice in their first 12 games, but have now done so in each of their last five matches. And if it wasn’t for their inaccuracy, the final margin against Gold Coast would have been a lot larger.
Four of the Suns’ goals came in a five-minute hot patch in the first quarter, but outside of that it was all Essendon as the hosts kicked seven of the first eight goals after quarter-time to crush Gold Coast’s resistance.
The Suns fought back from 40 points down last week to beat Richmond, but there were no such heroics his time.
Essendon set up the victory with their ballistic run and dash from the likes of Mason Redman, Andrew McGrath and Nick Hind off half-back, and the Suns were completely incapable of shutting it down.
McGrath celebrated his recent re-signing with 29 touches, while Zach Merrett (36), Dylan Shiel (29) and Hind (25) were also highly effective.
Suns star Touk Miller might have finished with 28 disposals, but was held to 16 in the first three terms by Jye Caldwell (21).
Gold Coast showed some fight in the first term, but it was completely non-existent in the second as Essendon ran riot, and if it wasn’t for poor goalkicking they would’ve been further ahead than 30 points at halftime.
JONES KICKS A RIPPER
Late in the third quarter, Harrison Jones put the result beyond doubt when he broke the meek Ballard and Oleg Markov tackles before snapping truly from 20m out for one of the goals of the day to put the Bombers up by 45 points.
STRINGER STRIKES
Jake Stringer got among the goals again, helping himself to four, and none were better than his magnificent effort early in the second term from 40m out off one step under huge pressure from Brandon Ellis to put Essendon 20 points to the good.