For all of the pomp and circumstance that surrounds the now-traditional Anzac Day conflict on the MCG, there was one factor conspicuously missing through the years: Essendon and Collingwood each being correctly good.
The Magpies completed the Nineties meekly; the Bombers haven’t made it previous week one of many finals since 2004. The standard of the match as a spectacle has seldom suffered, however not since 2002 has one among these video games felt as vital as 2024’s version.
This was a cracking recreation of soccer by anybody’s measure; there have been fast momentum swings, assertion moments from star gamers, a couple of scintillating comeback, and naturally an exciting, dramatic end. And bringing all of it collectively was a pleasant distinction in types from the Bombers and Pies, each of whom got here to footy’s Mecca with a plan of motion and executed it beautifully at any time when they got the prospect.
The Bombers have taken nice strides in 2024 in enhancing their stoppage work – having ranked lifeless final for clearances in 2023 and second-last in 2022, change was required each in construction and personnel over the summer time, and it has borne fruit.
Jake Stringer, a sporadic attendant at centre bounces, was deadly at any time when he went in there, ending with a whopping eight clearances, three from the centre. Typical suspects Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish (six and 5 apiece) had been their standard prolific selves, however it’s Stringer’s devastating burst of velocity that’s the Bombers’ prime stoppage weapon.
Over the past two years, that attacking trait would have been nullified by their frailty going the opposite method, however Sam Durham’s transition to full time inside mid alongside Jye Caldwell, plus the transfer of Merrett and Parish to be much more defensively minded than they was, has sorted that out.
Caldwell and Durham are first and third respectively on the Bombers for tackles in 2024, with Merrett second: they’ve given the Dons a metal with out the ball round stoppages they by no means had earlier than, permitting them one of the best of each worlds – Stringer’s velocity and Merrett’s class transferring ahead, and fixed stress going the opposite method.
At no level beneath Brad Scott has that been extra apparent, and extra profitable, than Anzac Day: a whopping 40-23 benefit in clearances, and 19-8 from the centre, and a 135-113 edge in contested ball are numbers that we haven’t seen from the Bombers since Jobe Watson was in his pomp. They’re numbers that don’t typically go away a crew with out 4 premiership factors.
They had been harmful with them, too: 43 of the Bombers’ 85 factors had been sourced from stoppages, in comparison with 9 for the Magpies, and solely inaccurate kicking within the second half after drilling each probability that got here their method to quarter time prevented that margin from being wider.
The Dons did one thing much like Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs in two terrific wins previously fortnight. It’s sustainable, it’s highly effective, and better of all, it’s a method that, not like earlier Bombers strategies, has been confirmed to work within the stress cooker of finals.
The following step for the Bombers is to try to match that stoppage efficiency with stress inside 50 to lock the ball in and permit ball-ups and throw-ins close to purpose: simply two tackles inside 50 throughout the match tells of their ‘rating or bust’ strategy to venturing ahead.
With Jade Gresham utilized in latest weeks as a link-up interceptor roaming from half-forward to the wings, and Alwyn Davey nonetheless younger and studying, it’s one of many few issues the Bombers now conspicuously lack – and whereas the overhead marking of Peter Wright, Kyle Langford, Harrison Jones and Stringer makes for menace aplenty and Sam Draper and Todd Goldstein’s crew ruckwork has proved a strategic winner of late, there’s a dialogue available about whether or not the strengths of such a tall ahead line outweigh its weaknesses when the ball hits the bottom.
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As for the Magpies, this was a recreation not like their win over Port Adelaide final week, in that it was constructed on their strengths of 2023: livid stress, slingshot ball motion from half-back, and a diffusion of goalkicking choices inside 50 – even when they needed to come from an analogous drawback after being blown aside within the early levels.
The Pies didn’t dominate on the coalface like towards the Energy, however this regarded extra definitively just like the reigning premiers at their greatest – as soon as the ball went inside 50, it stayed there for lengthy durations, with frenetic tackling and well-placed interceptors simply exterior the arc leaving the Bombers penned in.
The Pies had virtually as large a bonus in scores from ahead half intercepts because the Bombers did from stoppages, kicking 35 factors to fifteen and having 24 of those intercepts to 16.
It’s the place the Magpies play their greatest footy: freewheeling from half-back with exact kicks to targets on the transfer, then giving a small ahead line the prospect to run their opponents ragged with repeat leads, Bobby Hill the quickest of all.
It’s no coincidence that Nick Daicos had his greatest and most impactful recreation of the season up to now: with the ball in perpetual movement when the Pies acquired it, his velocity, repeat efforts and sensible ball use in heavy site visitors was a serious asset.
As was Brody Mihocek, one of the best ahead on the bottom who might have price himself a severe probability at an Anzac Medal if not for some wayward kicking within the final time period. An unconventional key tall, he’s as harmful at floor degree as any large ahead within the recreation, together with his follow-up stress, ahead craft and work in area belying his dimension.
It was between these two contrasts the place this traditional match ebbed and flowed: within the first quarter, and particularly within the first ten minutes, the Bombers dominated, profitable clearances 5-1 and disposals 25-4 by the point they’d rammed on their fourth purpose to zip, and the Pies racking up a stress issue of 213 to 172 within the second time period on their method to clawing again to virtually parity regardless of persevering with to be belted on the coalface.
All up, the solace for each groups popping out of a draw that both might simply have deservedly gained is that they’re official contenders each, with strengths that can maintain them in good stead of their bid for finals.
And for us impartial supporters, this was the sweetest plum of all: an Anzac Day match greater than worthy of its blockbuster billing, staged between two combatants which can be each probability of doing one thing particular for the remainder of 2024.
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