The dejected Bombers after a much-improved performance on-field.Credit:Getty Images
In reality,neither Essendon nor the Pies appealed as prospective finalists from the outset of 2022,and nothing we saw on Anzac Day changes that perception,though the result will act as a fillip for Magpie fans in a season when they are trying to build for the future.
The pre-game narrative was that the Bombers,rather than Collingwood,were on trial,since they had under-performed after an improbable (and misleading) finals appearance last year.
The major allegation was that they were defensively inept,and they had failed to work hard when the opposition - most egregiously against a superior Fremantle - had the footy.
It wasn’t that they’d lost four games. It was nature of those defeats,which were comprehensive and not the kind of scrappy dog fights that fans demand,irrespective of their team’s numerous deficiencies.
No Essendon player was under more pressure to perform than Darcy Parish,whose remarkable ability to win the ball was evident again,as he set mid-game records for possession tallies. At half-time,Parish had 30 disposals and was on track to break the AFL record for possessions in a match.
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The Pies didn’t deploy a hard tag on Parish,who had not been criticised for failing to win the footy. The accusation was that the nuggety midfielder - who won the Anzac Medal last year - was guilty of not backing up his prolific ball-getting with two-way running,that he hadn’t defended. In this,Parish was asymbol of the Bombers’ failings.
Parish went off injured at one point in the final quarter with a sore ankle,his output having ebbed in the second half,as he finished with a meagre 44 disposals.