Racing and Sports will provide analysis of many games in the 2022 AFL Season.
We'll endeavour to run through the form, incorporate appropriate stats and also supply a betting prediction which won't always just be who will win.
RICHMOND V ESSENDON
Saturday 21 May @ MCG
It might be 'Dreamtime at the G' but it will seem like Nightmare on Elm Street going into this for Essendon fans.
With all the talk of a 'Line in the Sand' match after the atrocious effort against Sydney, you wonder what sort of game planning could occur for the players heading into what would normally be a highly respectful and strong willed game. Mouth guards at 20 paces at training one option.
Led by the likes of their leading light in the media circles Matthew Lloyd, they were met head first.
He didn't call for full scale confrontation in contests but some drew that inference and it seemed over the top. Great players at their best know when to hold them and when to fold them.
Flying the flag might well have worked in the 80s/90s and even when Essendon last contended in the early 2000s. But that Sheedy style, laser-eyed, mano a mano could backfire in the current version of footy.
I guess there is a difference between two hard nuts going for it like say Joel Selwood, Luke Hodge, Luke Parker, Callan Ward etc comparing that to if someone wants to run right through them.
Those in the media laughingly suggesting the latter should happen, primarily because Essendon was insipid and meek, surely can't then stand up for the potential of what incidents and accidents may result. No hints or allegations either.
Essendon just has to be stronger at the ball (within the law/spirit of the law) and with the ball. Remember this was a side that made finals in 2021. OK they went out with a whimper but they did make it.
And the upshot of trading and drafting was that they possibly were stronger on the whole in 2022. That may not be realistic without a big forward structure and injuries have curtailed that.
But there was no indication of a decline like this. If you want to be utterly going down positive street for Bombers fans, it is sort of reminiscent of the way Richmond capitulated in 2016 and look what happened since then.
30 tackles was the sum total of the night between the Randwick and Paddington ends. One imagines there will be 30 tackles by the time the first quarter is over this week. Whether that ends them on the right note is another thing but human nature has a way.
They face a foe who are sort of beginning to murmur. Still not at the levels of 2017-20, but with one D Martin getting the juices flowing plus Lynch firing and the defensive structures behind them allowing a free-flowing exodus of the ball, Punt Road does not have a 'September-Free zone' feel to it this time around.
When Martin is at his best is when he has a squadron to back him up defensively. Lambert, Edwards, Graham and then the main backline provide him with a wall which is often tough to breach.
That surge football, move the ball in whatever manner, be it by handball, knock on, kick, punch, whatever - just get it flowing in the right direction is key. It is probably why a team good enough to hold the ball off them by controlled kicking frustrates them.
There is a good chance Essendon will start on fire here but of course Damien Hardwick, being an ex-Bomber himself, will know this playbook very much. Cut from the Sheedy cloth, anticipating a fire and brimstone start will offer no surprise.
What will be needed for them is just to hit the scoreboard. It won't be a great thing if the Bombers did get physical if they are doing it from ten goals down. It will then seem rather trite and inconsequential.
Without a huge defensive mechanism to withstand any Richmond onslaught of their own, thinking there will be some fodder out the back. Looks for some waltz in goals here. Shai Bolton has been in lovely goal kicking/poaching form so give him a roll.
Even if this is not a match that ends up close, you can bet every single football person will be viewing it with great desire, great anticipation and great fascination.
How many times will the media interview Dermot this week one wonders – the sand surely has at least the remnants of a marking?
Match Selection: Richmond by 29 points
Suggested Bets: Shai Bolton 3+ goals @ $2.75
