Essendon v. Sydney

It was a big Friday night of footy at Etihad Stadium as Essendon faced the Sydney Swans and our nemesis over the years, former Hawthorn and current Sydney player Lance "Buddy" Franklin.  Considering how we have been playing lately I wasn't overly optimistic about this match, but I did not expect us to only manage to score 1.1 and be 6 goals behind by the end of the first quarter.  It was good to see Tom Bellchambers back from injury, and that freed up he and Paddy Ryder to go forward from the ruck at times, although it didn't have a massive impact on the scoreboard.

Of course, the biggest worry was Buddy, and he was up and about getting 3 of his 5 goals in the second quarter.  In the third quarter an umpire collided with a Sydney player and was down on the ground motionless for 5 minutes before being stretchered off.  Some in the crowd were actually booing him, which was a bit rough (Onagh and I even had a guy sitting behind us who wanted him put down like a race horse).  Part of the reason for the booing was likely the bad umpire calls, with the last straw being Michael Hurley getting a head high bump from Sydney's Dan Hannebery that put Hurley on the ground for a few minutes and resulted in no free kick.  Jake Carlisle was our sub for the game and managed to kick 2 goals, so hopefully that is an indication of his form starting to improve.  In the end Essendon lost by 50 points but at least we managed to stop Buddy from getting his 600 career goal!

Final Score
Essendon: 9.10 (64)
Sydney: 18.6 (114)