It seems like it was just a little while ago that the issue with the Essendon midfield revolved around their inability to win the footy in the contest. As a matter of fact, it was something that came up in our season preview.
We were looking at players like Jye Caldwell, Ben Hobbs, Will Setterfield, and even Jake Stringer, and wondering whether they’d be able to provide the answer to the Bombers when it came to competing with the league’s best in the guts.
And just when you think you have an answer,
Something changes the question.
What we witnessed in the clash between the Bombers and Port Adelaide on the weekend was a midfield massacre. In this case, it was Connor Rozee toting a machine gun while the Essendon mids threw pebbles at him. His support crew of Zak Butters, Jason Horne-Francis, and Willem Drew all landed heavy blows, themselvesas the Bombers looked helpless.
Essendon are ranked 11th in the league for contested possessions and fifth in centre clearances, but against the Power, they were simply blown away, unable to keep up with the speed of the Port midfielders on the spread, and looking pretty bloody slow as the ball switched from inside to outside. The Bombers had six centre bounce clearances in Round Four.
Port Adelaide had 19.
Once the ball was in packs around the ground, the Bombers were able to equalise with numbers, picking up an additional 24 clearances to Port’s 20, but it was in the guts that they lost this game. And it is in the guts that teams will try to exploit them.
So, how do you fix this? And how do you not go too far in that direction?
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