Where and when: Marvel, Saturday March 21, 1:45pm
Last time they met: Optus Stadium, round 22, 2019: Fremantle 7.13 (55) lost to Essendon 13.9 (87)
What it means for Essendon: After an injury-hit pre-season that saw 15 surgeries for players, the Bombers could put that behind them with a strong start to 2020. Essendon will be without key players Dyson Heppell and Cale Hooker due to injury but otherwise have most players back and available.
What it means for Fremantle: Under new coach Justin Longmuir, the Dockers will be keen to begin their 2020 campaign in form. Playing on the road may be less of a factor for the travelling Fremantle line-up given the game will be played in an empty Marvel Stadium.
The stat: The last time Fremantle won a round one clash away from Perth was in 2014, when the travelled to Melbourne and beat Collingwood at Docklands by 70 points.
The match-up: Rory Lobb v Brandon Zerk-Thatcher
The young Bombers defender could take on the experienced Freo and former Giants forward in what will be an intriguing battle. Zerk-Thatcher was impressive with his intercept marking throughout the Marsh Community Series, and a stopping job on Lobb would go a long way to an Essendon win.
In the spotlight: Jacob Townsend
What does the premiership Tiger have in store at his new (and third) club? The Bombers have been rapt with his pre-season, his intensity and what he’s brought to the group. Expect a ferocious forward presence from Townsend after three goals in the Bombers’ final pre-season clash against Geelong.
Big call: Andrew Brayshaw to justify his SC owners’ confidence by spending the entire game running through the guts gathering 30 touches.
Prediction: Essendon by 10 points
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Fyfe dosnt seem to monster the bombers from memory…
Yeah, tagged in their last couple encounters. I didn’t start Fyfe, so watch him go 150 today.
Hope so, to help fix up the dunkly disaster. 80-90 would have been tolerable.
Haha same. I’m scared to look
Is my bombers fanaticism going too far with parish f3, smith f4, mcgrath m5/6, and bzt f5/6?
Bzt d5/6
Yes. But only because we’re an injury prone side.
two would have been excellent. three a little obsessive. four? downright foolish 😉
good luck mate
Not expecting to keep more than two. If there were byes, no way four.
The lack of byes swayed me to go all 3 dogs. Hope Oliver dosnt go too massive Vs bont throughout the season.
Meant to get shiel and townsend as well!!
Lol
Parish the only semi disaster and he was on target to lift the bat….dont know what happened in 2nd half. Mcgrath confirmed why I am sure this is a breakout year for him.
From a fellow don, They all deserve it except maybe MCGRATH where you could get more value elsewhere. But then He is arguably on for a break out year..
.After the Dunkley Fiasco, I am keeping my mouth shut. Are some players scared to tackle or touch each other bcoz of Covid-19?
TU No the Dogs and blues just had a bad day
TD yes there is a trend in Tackling
White line fever. They just let the hype get to them thinking the win was theirs before they stepped onto the ground.
Reality check, now they will actually try from here on out.
Running out of time fellas…
TU: Jacobs
TD: Naismith
Getting cold feet on DSmith too
Hey guys, thoughts would be much appreciated
TU – Naismith, Neale and Ryan
TD – Gawn, Cogs and Mcasey
Alternatives in either option could be Laird over Ryan, or Jelly/Fyfe over Neale
I’m a VERY worried about Dev Smith. He only bounced back in M2 by virtue of the 10 tackles he laid.
In the games so far, players have been tackling less and avoiding front on contact imo.
Literally nothing I can do about it though, would require me to upend my premo and rookie picks.
Have resigned myself to him scoring 60, hope I’m wrong.
Join the dark side… downgrade him to Fort
you could be onto something GD. Last season teams averaged 62.6 tackles per game. This season so far (only 2 games though) it is 51.6 and that is after WEIGHTING the game length to reflect 16min. quarters!
It could just be Rd1 though?!
PS all four clubs who have played so far, were ranked tenth or lower for #tackles last year! so maybe not so bad!
Keep that moz going GD!!
URGENT request!
Who will score more in Rd1
TU: BZT v Lobb and Freo
TD: Zach GUTHRIE on a wing v GWS
Many thanks in advance!!
Max king TU
Sam Sturt TD
TU – gawn, dev smith, gould
TD – Sicily, naismith, parish
Would have to get rid of starchevich for gould
Laird, Conglio – TU
Sicily, Kelly – TD
Fyfe now starting in the goal square.
Hi guys
Thumbs up Heeney
Or
Thumbs down McCluggage
Cheers
With rule changes and game time shortened are brodie smith & Houston worth a look more so than your intercept types like sicily?
I am so tempted by brodie
TU: brodie smith
TD: sicily
J. Townsend, 3 votes.
Wighty’s got the C on him!
Looked at him this morning, didn’t take him… 86 at half time.
If you got on him good on you, but I don’t think you can read much into this game.
Freo are looking like an absolute rabble in 2020 too.
Nah…. Its on shiel….last minute trade!!
I wish
Brayshaw very underwhelming. Bewley has a nice role in the team.
Smith looking Good.
Anyone Take Townsend.?
Had him for 4 months. Dumped him yesterday for Darcy FORT! 🙁
I got on Townsend after reading AS’s view of him in the early stages. But I stuck with him. Thanks heaps AS.
Devon Smith looking very good late in 2nd quarter. Was quiet in the first quarter though.
What we’re seeing is that smaller contributions are having greater scoring impact.
Have Townsend, covering the Dunk well
Got him too, what a gun!
HALF-TIME SCORES
Essendon Bombers: 7.5.47
Dylan Shiel 104
Jacob Townsend 86
Devon Smith* 73
Andrew McGrath 68
Mason Redman 58
Kyle Langford 58
Jordan Ridley 53
Tom Cutler 51
Darcy Parish 49
Adam Saad 47
Michael Hurley 44
Tom Bellchambers 41
Orazio Fantasia 40
A. M-Tipungwuti 37
David Zaharakis 35
Jake Stringer 34
B. Zerk-Thatcher 33
Zach Merrett 31
Jayden Laverde 31
Will Snelling 29
Matt Guelfi 29
Aaron Francis 18
Fremantle Dockers: 3.3.21
Brett Bewley 71
Rory Lobb 55
Nat Fyfe 53
Ethan Hughes 49
Michael Walters 41
Sam Sturt 35
James Aish 34
Cameron McCarthy 33
Reece Conca 32
Brennan Cox 32
Andrew Brayshaw 26
Luke Ryan 25
Matt Taberner 24
Darcy Tucker 23
Lachlan Schulz 21
Adam Cerra 18
Travis Colyer 17
Sean Darcy 14
Taylin Duman 14
Bailey Banfield 12
Griffin Logue 9
Mitch Crowden 5
Let Brayshaw play ffs 65% tog…
Brayshaw disappointing did not see him at all apart from the last 10 seconds in the 2qrt
Nice goal from Sturt outside 50 too.
Amongst the best of the Freo players… might not be as slow a burn as we thought.
Stoopid no cheap rookies in defence made me cut Townsend and butler. Leased I kept bewley.
Love that FanFooty is including Metres Gained on their game pages now
Brett Bewley way out in front in this game with 358m, only 1% ownership for a $252K fwd is interesting
Sub 300k player named in centre. Took the gamble. Same as fort and Guthrie. Allows grawndy and deep mids.
I rated him all pre-season, just couldn’t afford him.
Seriously considered him. Picked Lynch and a rookie defender instead of Noble.
TU: reverse my mistake?
We’ll need an article next week regarding scoring patterns, some of the scores so far are insane!!
Brayshaw only 60%TOG
Will be lucky to score 60.
Round 1 already a big failure !
TU z Guthrie
TD mcasey
Smith deserved more than 97, but I’ll take it.
yep – now 105 with late updates but only 5 more than Sturt –
FULL-TIME SCORES (pre-scaling: still 109 pts to be allocated)
Essendon Bombers: 9.9.63
Dylan Shiel 161
Andrew McGrath 112
Adam Saad 110
Zach Merrett 105
Jordan Ridley 97
Devon Smith* 97
Tom Bellchambers 95
Jacob Townsend 91
Tom Cutler 90
Kyle Langford 88
Will Snelling 81
Matt Guelfi 79
Jake Stringer 73
Mason Redman 71
A. M-Tipungwuti 67
Michael Hurley 60
Darcy Parish 53
Aaron Francis 49
B. Zerk-Thatcher 49
Orazio Fantasia 49
David Zaharakis 47
Jayden Laverde 37
Fremantle Dockers: 8.9.57
Rory Lobb 130
Nat Fyfe 109
Michael Walters 106
Brett Bewley 89
Sam Sturt 89
Reece Conca 88
Darcy Tucker 77
Andrew Brayshaw 62
Taylin Duman 60
James Aish 60
Travis Colyer 56
Brennan Cox 54
Sean Darcy 53
Luke Ryan 52
Bailey Banfield 51
Cameron McCarthy 51
Ethan Hughes 51
Adam Cerra 50
Lachlan Schulz 44
Matt Taberner 40
Griffin Logue 31
Mitch Crowden 28
So glad I late swapped parish for shiel!!!
Shades of last year having already gotten two of my rookies wrong. Passed on both Sturt and Brown last minute in favour of loopholes
Got brown and had e loop on him not green. Missed sturt but have georgiades so not so bad. McAsey only fail so far.
Hmmmm Luke Ryan eh?
geeeezzz the late updates that are occurring through FF now has Sturt up to 100!!! he’s gone from 47 to 100 … crazy scoring …
Everyone saying Brayshaw was disappointing take into consideration that he did play 65% TOG games only go for 64 minutes now he played around 40mins that’s more then 1.5PPM any given year that’s a good PPM, considering that he played pretty well and missed some late opportunities. It was Bewleys day today, next it could and hopefully is Brayshaws. Hope you all rage trade 😉
Think there must be a question mark over his tank.
67% and 71% TOG in first two years and now he is to play full time midfield.
Studies have shown SC coaches who read newspaper sports page suck at SC.
F3Brayshaw anyone else. Arhhhhhh.
#Brawshawfakeout?
The dude had minor foot surgery last weekend.