\n Match Report\n <\/p>\n
\n Saints proved too good for the Dons in AAMI Community Series Practice Match.\n <\/p>\n
\n By Sophie Welsh – afl.com.au\n <\/p>\n
The 17.13 (115) to 10.12 (72) win over Essendon in Ballarat may have just been a pre-season match, but\u00a0Wanganeen-Milera\u00a0looked a class above, kicking four goals \u2013 including three in the first half \u2013 while playing predominantly in the midfield, also racking up 28 disposals and 805 metres gained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fellow recruit\u00a0Tom De Koning\u00a0had a harder day in the Ballarat humidity, battling against an impressive\u00a0Lachie Blakiston\u00a0in the ruck, while local boy\u00a0Rowan\u00a0Marshall\u00a0played predominantly up forward after requesting a trade to Geelong during the off-season.<\/p>\n
After a tumultuous off-season where he wanted a trade to Hawthorn, former Essendon captain\u00a0Zach Merrett\u00a0spent plenty of time forward, while young Bombers forward\u00a0Nate\u00a0Caddy\u00a0showed his skills both in the air and at ground level, crumbing and snapping truly through traffic to get the Bombers’ second goal of the game.<\/p>\n
After losing\u00a0Brad Hill\u00a0to illness before the game, the Saints lost another in the first quarter with new co-captain and defensive pillar\u00a0Callum Wilkie\u00a0ruled out with a calf cork, which stretched the Saints’ backline in the first half.\u00a0Kyle\u00a0Langford\u00a0and\u00a0Peter\u00a0Wright\u00a0capitalised, with the latter also rotating through the ruck.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zak\u00a0Johnson\u00a0impressed early with his foot skills, while\u00a0Archie\u00a0Roberts\u00a0got plenty of the footy throughout the contest.<\/p>\n
An even contest early gave way after the main change, with the Saints pulling ahead and finding multiple avenues to goal.<\/p>\n
For the Bombers,\u00a0Hussien El Achkar\u00a0was busy, kicking a nice goal in the second quarter, while\u00a0Brayden Fiorini\u00a0covered plenty of ground on the wing and popped up for a goal.\u00a0\u00a0Jacob Farrow\u00a0had 11 touches in the backline, while\u00a0Dyson Sharp got 14.<\/p>\n
Round one chance
One of the Bombers’ top draft picks,\u00a0Sharp\u00a0had plenty of run and gun and should be in the frame for a round one berth. Expect\u00a0Fiorini\u00a0to slot straight into a role on the wing, while\u00a0Johnson’s\u00a0elite delivery was on full show in the slippery conditions in Ballarat.\u00a0Jayden\u00a0Nguyen\u00a0had his work cut out for him against St Kilda goalsneak Jack Higgins but battled well, while\u00a0Hussien El Achkar’s\u00a0attack on the contest was admirable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ST KILDA\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a04.4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7.8\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a012.10\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 17.13 (115)
ESSENDON\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a03.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6.6\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 8.10\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a010.12 (72)<\/p>\n
GOALS
St Kilda:\u00a0Wanganeen-Milera 4, Higgins 3, Marshall 2, Owens 2, Stocker, Macrae, Garcia, Sharman, Ryan, Banfield
Essendon:\u00a0Wright 2, Langford 2, May 2, Caddy, El Achkar, Clarke, Fiorini<\/p>\n
BEST
St Kilda:\u00a0Wanganeen-Milera, Windhager, Sinclair, Boxshall, Ryan
Essendon:\u00a0Roberts, Blakiston, Johnson, Langford, Fiorini<\/p>\n
INJURIES
St Kilda:\u00a0Hill (illness), Wilkie (corked calf), Byrnes (ankle)
Essendon:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report Saints proved too good for the Dons in AAMI Community Series Practice Match. By Sophie Welsh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-509844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}