LAST ENCOUNTER
2018 Rd 9 @ VU Whitten Oval: Footscray 10.12 (72) d Essendon 8.13 (61)
FORM COMING IN
Essendon (10th, 7-9) suffered a sixth straight defeat in losing to Geelong by 28 points last week. / Footscray (8th, 8-8) was unable to shore up its finals spot in Round 19, with a 20-point loss to North Melbourne its fourth defeat in five games.
KEY QUESTION
Can the Bombers climb off the canvas at the last moment? Essendon was sitting in third spot after Round 12 but will now be out of finals contention if it loses this match. However, a win means the Bombers would likely just need to defeat the Northern Blues in Round 21 to snätch eighth spot from the Bulldogs due to their superior percentage.
KEY STAT
These teams rank first and second in the VFL for clearances per game (Footscray first), but the Bulldogs managed to win their Round 9 encounter despite losing clearances 47-33 to Essendon. What might worry Footscray is that some of its leading stoppage players that night â such as Lukas Webb, Josh Dunkley and Mitch Wallis â likely wonât play this time around.
COACHâS PERSPECTIVE
Footscray senior coach Steve Grace on the importance of this match:
âThe players already know (itâs important); they were well aware last week as well. Weâd set ourselves up to play three âelimination finalsâ and obviously the first one didnât go to plan (against the Kangaroos). We were on the back foot from the start and had to scramble to level the scores, only for mental lapses and some inexperience to affect us in the end. Our injury list has been long at AFL and VFL level all year, so weâve been able to get experience into some young blokes that they wouldnât otherwise have had and we hope that will hold us in good stead.â
On the keys to victory against Essendon:
âI think we need to take away their uncontested marks, stop their spread and be able to control the ball â thatâs what we did well when we played them earlier this year. We were able to win the ball on the inside and control the outside game as well, and if you canât control the Bombers on the spread then youâre chasing a bit of tail. They may have some more experienced guys around the ball with some AFL polish, so weâd like to take away some of their strengths by controlling play.â
On Footscrayâs season so far:
âWeâve been in almost every game; weâve either beaten or been in front of every top-eight team except for the Box Hill Hawks. We take heart out of that but thereâs a been theme as to why we canât beat some of those top sides, and itâs to do with the turnover game and our inability to defend as well as weâd like. (In terms of individual players,) Will Hayes has had an outstanding year and Reuben William is improving every week as a quick, pressure player. Cody Henness has impressed in the last few weeks, Andrew Panayi has come on as a small forward, Lachlan Sullivan has improved every week as a midfielder and weâve also had good growth out of Lachlan Smith as a key defender.â
