SEN Breakfast
"There is a really good nucleus there" - Essendon breakthrough for a win (14.04.26)
13 Apr 2026
Chapter 1: What led to Essendon's recent victory over the Demons?
Breakfast with Gary and Tim. The suggestion with the missing audio, maybe the umpire mics are positioned to pick up their voices and not necessarily surrounding noise. I don't know if that's to be the case, but that would give you some idea or reasoning as to why we didn't hear it. Righto. MCG. I say MCG. Adelaide Oval.
The Essendon Footy Club won't want to change the fixturing when they go to gather round because that's the third time in a row they've played Melbourne and the third time in a row they've whooped them. And they did it in pretty good style. The Demons kicked... They had a look at it, six of seven goals and went 19 points up just before halftime. And I think they thought they'd done enough.
And from that point on, it was 11 of 13 goals to the mighty Bombrays.
They got the deck chairs out after halftime. The demons. Yeah, they just took a snooze. Smoking the old cigar in the background. But that was great. I don't want to be clever after the event, but I did tell you in the lead-up. No, you did. I did tell you in the lead-up to this game that I was super confident. Because a couple of things.
Their performances over the last couple of weeks, Essendon had been on the improve. They really pushed forward. North Melbourne, and North Melbourne aren't a top side in the competition, but they're very, very competitive. They push them all the way. And then they were very good except for about 20 minutes in that game against the Bulldogs the week before.
So there were some signs there that they were improving. You know, Ridley came back. There were some really good moves. Langford went behind the ball. Wright went into the ruck and went head-to-head with Gorn. You know, Sammy Durham has been just average this season. But all of a sudden, he looked like the ā free Sam Durham that we've seen over the last couple of years playing.
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Chapter 2: How did Essendon's performance compare in the first half versus the second half?
So there was something different about him. I don't think McGrath should be played in the back six. I think McGrath should get an assignment in the midfield forever, which enables Essendon to play a different style of defender back there as well. The lefties are going really well in that part of the ground. Merritt was really good. And the kids were good. They had the confidence.
Sullivan Robey, that was his first game. He's made of the right stuff, this kid. I'm not saying that he's going to be a superstar of the game, but he's going to be a very, very good 200-game player for Essendon over the next decade.
This might sound harsh, and I don't mean it to be, but I've got more confidence in Sullivan Robey than I have Archie Perkins. And Archie Perkins has played 103 games. No, that's not natural. Yeah, but Archie, he hadn't... I suppose... If you go back and have a look at some of Archie... If he was fit, he'd get a game.
If Archie Perkins... There's games that Archie Perkins played early in his career that were excellent. Like... which were enough to make you think that this kid is going to be a long-term player, but his career has stagnated. The other thing was that game really suited Essendon, right? So one of the things that they haven't been great at is defending. So they had slow, slow ball movement.
They had a lot of uncontested marks. I think they had over 120 points.
uncontested marks and the pressure didn't get on them the way that it could have or should have from Melbourne they didn't push up and make it really difficult for Essendon therefore the defenders of Essendon had plenty of time and the luxury of not being bombarded by quick ball movement from Melbourne so that really played into their hands again
I thought the coach was ā He did a great job. He did a great job. And even Dennis from Caloundra has texted in to say that he did a good job. 79 uncontested marks after halftime. They had 49 in the first half. And the best way to take speed out of the game, which is what Melbourne wanted, is not give them the footy.
That's right. Deny them of the football. So there were some really good signs. I'm not prepared to say that Essendon are back and all of a sudden they're going to get on a roll. But it does support what Brad's been saying for a long time. It does. And as an Essendon supporter, what you wanted to see also is just a more competitive...
effort like that's what you want that's that's that's that's the bottom line you want to see players get out there and compete and be aggressively competitive which is exactly what and it's a great it's a great tonic for a team that hasn't won for a long time to experience the four points again that breeds confidence in itself it does and you know if you're an Essendon fan you've got talent so you've got Archie Roberts
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Chapter 3: What strategies did Essendon implement to dominate the game?
Jacob Farrow, Nate Caddy, Isaac Kakko, Zach Reed, Elijah Sardis, who played his best game, Roby, I thought Day Wicks showed enough, and then you've got Dyson Sharp and Angus Clark who didn't play. That's a really good nucleus of young kids. Then the older blokes, you know, without Redmond and Martin on the weekend, so you've got to add that to the group. And then I've got work in progress.
There's Archie May and Edwards in the forward half, which allows Wright to play somewhere else. You've got Harry Jones sitting there injured, I know, but...
hopefully he gets back at some stage so in the space of a week or so there should be some optimism about Essendon they are they have got enough at their disposal to as Brad has been saying for a long time when we get everyone back we'll get some selection pressure and um you know we'll be more competitive because we're able to pull a few more levers and they did
Yep, they did. And I'm not saying that Essendon are going to be a premiership team. We talk about Essendon finally in a positive frame of mind, and it's just too much for some people out there. They needed a win. They got a win. They face a really difficult game this weekend against the Gold Coast Suns, so that's going to test them even more.
But I just hope that they leave McGrath in the midfield and they match him up against Norr Anderson this week or they match him up against Rowell or... They match him up against Miller, somebody in the midfield, and they leave him there. That kid's had some really tough love in the time that he's been playing football. He's been pushed back, and he's played a lot of good games in the VFL.
He's had a lot of the ball. I didn't think his kicking was horrendous. Like, he hit targets a couple of times, as you'd expect an AFL player to be able to do. What he has got, he's got this amazing ability. Not amazing ability. He's got a great ability to be able to win the ball and find himself in the right position either to win the ball or to receive a handball. And he's very good by hand.
And he's a big, strong body as well. So, you know, full credit for them. to force him to actually have to play back at the other level before he proves himself that he can do all the things that they want him to do.
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: Who were the standout players for Essendon in this match?
And Essling came up with a game plan to get a one-off result. That is not the way you typically want to play or how modern footy is being played. Hey, you play against your opposition. You plan for your opposition. You take away their strengths. I mean, how many times have you heard... Melbourne, so far this year, been praised, and the whole footy club said, no, we're going to take the game on.
We're going to rip, tear, and bust through the middle. I think they're the quickest team in footy this year, or they were up until the weekend. So what you do as a coach then is you go, okay, let us take that away from them, and that's what they did. And then what you've got to do, whoever this person is, I haven't given their name, 534,
You've got to trust Brad Scott and his group then to go, okay, now we've got Gold Coast. How do they play? What can we do there? How do we take their strengths away? Not necessarily going to play exactly the same way.
But all you need to do is go and watch the way the Sydney Swans played against them last week, the Suns.
And Essendon might be able to do that. That's the reality.
They may not be able to sustain that.
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Chapter 5: How has Essendon's recent form impacted their confidence?
And that's going to be their next test. And you're right. To anyone that says, look, you can't sustain the way they played against ā that can't be the way you play week in, week out because other sides will pressure you and they'll turn the ball over as a result of that. So they do have to find another way to play. And that's all part of the development of a team.
Yes, and some people just hate Essendon. We haven't spoken positively about Essendon for 17 weeks. I reckon they're worthy of 10 minutes. It's nine minutes to eight.