Click here<\/a><\/p>\n\u2018WORLD RECORD WATCH\u2019: PREMIERS\u2019 DAMNING STATISTICAL ANNIHILATION OF DONS<\/p>\n
The scoreboard at quarter time told fans and viewers alike that Brisbane led Essendon by 29 points at the first break \u2014 a large margin, but not totally irrecoverable.<\/p>\n
That being said, if you looked at the team-versus-team stat sheet without access to the final scorecard, you wouldn\u2019t be able to see a world where the Bombers could come out on top.<\/p>\n
Chris Fagan\u2019s side registered an eye-watering 49 uncontested marks before quarter time; 37 more than the Dons tallied in the same stanza.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be record watch (for uncontested marks), because it\u2019s 49-12 at the moment. Part of it was by design from Essendon, they put an extra behind the play,\u201d West Coast premiership coach Adam Simpson told Fox Footy at quarter time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as you do that against Brisbane, they\u2019ll just go into their control mode and beat you by a thousand cuts \u2026 they\u2019re really good at it, they\u2019ve done it for a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Brisbane\u2019s total control over the match\u2019s tempo with so many marks meant that the hosts\u2019 defence was inevitably going to be peppered from the get-go.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve just found this fourth gear, I suppose you\u2019d call it. It\u2019s not turbo, it\u2019s not slow. It\u2019s just: \u2018We\u2019ll find holes in this defence\u2019,\u201d Simpson said during the opening term. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a common conversation with team defence. How do you cover off 18 players? Is it one-on-one? Do you protect space?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to be too critical of defenders when it\u2019s coming (inside 50) like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incredibly, despite having 50 more disposals in the first quarter, the Lions also still managed to double Essendon\u2019s tackle count 20 to 10.<\/p>\n
Cameron Rayner and Zac Bailey led the charge inside forward 50 with their pressure; all while the star duo still managed to hit the scoreboard three times between them early.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssendon are under siege every time it\u2019s a live ball in their (defensive) 50 \u2026 It\u2019s difficult for any team in the competition to handle this sort of forward pressure, let alone this young Essendon side today,\u201d St Kilda great Leigh Montagna said during the first term.<\/p>\n
Small forward great Eddie Betts added at quarter time: \u201cThey\u2019re the best team in the competition for that reason,\u201d small forward legend Eddie Betts told Fox Footy at quarter time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir pressure rating in the forward half was 204, they beat them in tackles, they have more inside forward 50 tackles. They\u2019re all over the ground, wherever the ball goes, there\u2019s a Brisbane Lions player in their face forcing that mistake for the Bombers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon utility Nik Cox will make his long-awaited return to AFL level on Saturday afternoon, after being named…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,3237,10145,142568,233523,11244,85,311729,311730],"class_list":["post-644169","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-brisbane-lions","tag-garry-lyon","tag-match-details","tag-nik-cox","tag-sam-draper","tag-sports","tag-star-trade-recruit","tag-trade-recruit-faces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644169","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=644169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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