Late Saints goal ends Dockers’ finals hopes
MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 ESSENDON coach John Worsfold and his players have no option but to cop every bit of the avalanche of criticism that comes their way after their diabolical display in a 104-point thrashing by the Western Bulldogs.
Saturday night’s clash at Docklands was billed as a virtual elimination final for the Dogs, but it was the Bombers’ season that appeared to suffer a fatal blow.
The ballistic Bulldogs smashed the listless Dons in a midfield masterclass that saw them boot 21 goals in a row in a 21.11 (137) to 4.9 (33) thumping.
Essendon remained in seventh spot after the mauling, but its percentage took another pounding on the back of last week’s big loss to Port Adelaide. Plenty will come hard for the coach and his team in the aftermath, but Worsfold refused to unload on his players despite the poor showing.
“The message to the players is that we deserve all the criticism that we get for what we dished up tonight, but that’s not who we are,” he said. “So don’t put your head down and think that when people rip into you for how you played tonight, that that is who you are.
“These guys have represented Essendon brilliantly for a big part of this year so far and had some wonderful wins [but] we’ve had a poor loss. So we’ll cop the criticism for tonight’s effort, but we’ll focus on where we want to get to as a team.”
Worsfold’s position came under scrutiny before a fivegame winning streak but he remains entirely comfortable with his place at the club despite renewed speculation.
“I’m more than comfortable that I’ve done it before, I know how to do it, and will do it again,” Worsfold said. ST KILDA has dumped Fremantle out of the finals race, Josh Bruce kicking the winner with less than a minute left to hand his side a thrilling threepoint victory at Docklands Stadium yesterday.
Play restarted with 39 seconds left on the clock, but Josh Battle ended the Dockers’ frantic final forward thrust with an intercept mark deep inside his defensive 50 to seal the victory.
Fremantle looked to have done enough when Brandon Matera kicked the first goal of a tense last quarter. But Ross Lyon’s men return to Perth out of the finals hunt in 12th with a 9-11 record.
Jack Steven and Dan Hannebery, playing together for St Kilda for the first time, added a level of class that would have had sacked coach Alan Richardson pondering what might have been if he had the pair at his disposal.
Steven inspired the Saints with three clutch goals, while Hannebery had 23 possessions and two goals, with Seb Ross (28 disposals) and Jack Billings (27) also important.
Fremantle skipper Nat Fyfe put on another masterclass, almost dragging his team across the line with 35 possessions, seven clearances and two goals, with Ed Langdon (28 disposals) and Bradley Hill (27) also influential.
Hannebery booted his first two goals as a Saint in quick succession to fire his new club to a game-high 18-point lead in the first quarter, before Michael Walters and Fyfe combined to make it a 12-point game at the first break.
Lyon was animated in the quarter-time huddle and the 4.3 6.5 8.7 10.12 GOALS Dockers responded, Fyfe giving his side the lead for the first time 19 minutes into the second term with his second goal.
St Kilda led the seesawing affair by a point at halftime, but Fremantle enjoyed a purple patch without making the home side pay.
The inaccurate Dockers held a seven-point lead entering the final term, but would have gone behind had the Saints not wasted opportunities with the first four behinds of the quarter.
Matera booted the first goal of the term in the 19th minute, but the Saints kept coming with Steven’s brilliant third goal setting up the grandstand finish. St Kilda pulled off its ninth win of the season — the third in four games under caretaker Brett Ratten — with one player down on the bench for most of the contest after Nick Coffield dislocated a shoulder in the first quarter.