The Kangaroos stormed home in the second half of the Elimination final to run over the top of Essendon and setup a clash with Geelong next week, in a pulsating contest played in front of almost 80,000 fans at the MCG on Saturday night.
Continue reading Kangaroos end Bombers season with stirring comeback
Round 20 sees the return of the good old fashioned Friday Night Blockbuster, with traditional rivals Richmond and Essendon meeting in a game that could barely be more important for either side. The Tigers improbably – or not depending on how you view their history in recent seasons – are making a late season surge and remarkably despite earlier this season having a 3-10 record are still a remote chance of making the finals. They’ve won 5 in a row the Tiges, and while they haven’t all been stellar performances winning form is good form – including last week when they shot away from GWS early before having to grind out a 27 point win.
Continue reading AFL Round 20 Preview – Richmond v Essendon
Photo : APP: Joe Castro
Sunday afternoon at Etihad this week features possibly the most intriguing game of the round, with the surging Bombers taking on a Bulldogs outfit playing with renewed confidence.
The game shapes as season defining for the Bombers, who despite showing great form to win 5 of their last 7 games including strong wins over finals contenders Adelaide, Port Adelaide away and last week Collingwood, have a nasty habit of dropping games they should win. Those wins over strong teams have been somewhat cancelled out by poor losses to Melbourne and St Kilda, and far from convincing wins over Brisbane and these Bulldogs.
A win this week would cement the Bombers place in the top 8 and could move them above North Melbourne into 6th on the ladder, while a loss could drop them straight back out of the 8. For that reason alone it should be a highly motivated Essendon outfit on Sunday. They smashed the Pies last week, but getting motivated to play Collingwood has always been easy for Essendon teams, it’s the games they enter as strong favorites that are the problem.
Continue reading AFL ROUND 18 PREVIEW – Western Bulldogs V Essendon – #AFLDogsDons
Saturday, June 21 at Etihad Stadium
Essendon 15.11 (101) Defeated Adelaide 14.8 (92)
A withering 7 goal first quarter burst was enough to help Essendon overcome a dogged Adelaide outfit in front of just under 31,000 people at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night. The exceptional start – the Bombers had kicked 7 goals straight to the Crows 2.6 by quarter time – meant the Bombers would lead from start to finish, though they wouldn’t have it all their own way with the Crows pegging that early advantage back to just 9 points by the final siren.
Continue reading AFL Match Review – Round 14 Essendon Vs Adelaide
Saturday night at Etihad this week sees the stumbling Bombers come up against a revitalized Adelaide Crows.
The Bombers are coming off a disastrous loss against Melbourne in a game they dominated in every way, other than on the scoreboard when the final siren rang. Most tellingly they had almost double the amount of inside 50′s of the Demons, along with 9 more scoring shots, but lost by a point. Get the feeling goalkicking practice would have been high on the agenda at Tullamarine this week.
Continue reading AFL Match Preview – Round 14 Essendon Vs Adelaide
As he watched the packed media conference off camera on February 5th 2013, no doubt concerned for where the game he had fostered as CEO of the AFL for 10 years was about to head; Andrew Demetriou would have been very familiar with the man explaining to the cameras his decision to ask the AFL and ASADA to investigate his club – and not just because he was the Chairman of Essendon.
David Evans and Demetriou go back you see. Way back.
When Demetriou made the move from the AFL Players Association to the AFL 15 or so years ago it was Evans’ late father Ron, himself a former Essendon Football Club President and then Chairman of the AFL, who took the former Kangaroo and Hawk under his wing and mentored him in his eventual role as CEO of the AFL. It was only natural that Demetriou would cross paths with Ron’s son David, a rising businessman of similar age.
When David decided to follow in his fathers footsteps in 2009 and take over the leadership at Essendon it was Demetriou who supported him, sending him a “very nice letter of congratulations“.
Demetriou had 2 years earlier spoken warmly at the funeral of Evans Sr, a mark of his closeness to the man and Evans family.
So when Demetriou was briefed in late January 2013 by the Australian Crime Commission on the intelligence that had been gathered about possible doping at an AFL club; while rumors had been swirling for some time about Essendon’s supplements program run by Stephen Dank the previous season; it probably didn’t take Einstein to figure out that the two should have a chat.
What we know for sure is that chat came via phone on the night of February 4 while Evans, Hird and a few key Essendon personnel were meeting at Evans’ home. But from there things get a little fuzzy. One version of events – Hird’s and apparently Essendon Football Manager Danny Corcoran’s – has Evans getting ‘tipped off’ by Demetriou that players at his club had been taking performance enhancing drugs (PED’s).
The other version – Demetriou’s and Evans’, denied that tip off was given. Either way it was news to Hird, who was certain the accusation was incorrect.
You’ve doubtless heard these stories before so there’s no need to detail an entire timeline, but the discussions of that night and meetings at AFL House the next day would lead Essendon to “Self Report” itself to the AFL and ASADA.
The ACC briefing had clearly scared Demetriou, and it appears in turn he’d spooked Evans into that Press Conference, seemingly giving more weight to Demetriou’s concerns than Hird’s. At the least Demetriou, as the AFL CEO, accepted the ‘self report’ and helped organize it and what would follow.
It would turn out to be one of the worst decisions made in the history of Australian sport.
Continue reading Collateral Damage : The mess left behind by Andrew Demetriou & David Evans
Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images
Not for the first time in the past 16 months there’s something smelly following Andrew Demetriou.
The former CEO of the AFL, who finished his highly successful yet sometimes tumultuous 11 year tenure in the highest profile job in Australian sport last Wednesday, is widely expected to take up the kind of cosy board position with a high profile company that most former CEO’s seem to semi retire to these days.
Yesterday however courtesy of Caroline Wilson at The Age came the somewhat surprising announcement that Demetriou would be joining the board of local Sports Marketing company The Bastion Group.
Continue reading Andrew Demetriou : A Bastion of integrity?
