Essendon inflicted more wounds to the struggling Tigers and possibly ended the coaching career of Terry “Wallet” Wallace with a comeback 40 point victory in AFL Round 9 at the MCG on Saturday night.

The Bombers kicked 12 goals to 3 in the second half to turn around a 16 point deficit at half time to win by 40 at the final siren – 19.11 (125) to 12.13 (85) – which in turn saw Tiger fans calling for the head of Wallace on radio and internet chatter.

Jason Winderlich won the Yiooken Award as part of the AFL’s Indigenous Round for his best-on-ground performance. He had 28 touches for the game and along with Jobe Watson, Patrick Ryder, Andrew Lovett and skipper Matthew Lloyd who finished with 4 goals for the game were amongst the Bombers best.

An ‘upset’ looked on the cards early in the match as the Tigers put aside all the off-field distractions of the previous week to open up a handy first quarter lead. Mitch Morton putting the first major on the board for the Tigers after three minutes and was followed up by a Brett Deledio goal from 50 metres out on the boundary. Lloyd steadied the Bomber ship after marking strongly and goalling, but Kayne Pettifer gave the Tigers a 16-point lead at the first break after a goal on the siren.

Tiger forward Nathan Brown extended their lead to a match high 22 early in the second term, but Essendon responded with back-to-back majors through Alwyn Davey and Lloyd with his second to cut the margin to nine points. Pettifer snagged his second of the night late in the term to give his side a 16 point break heading into the main break in a contest that was seeing the Bombers smashed 14-2 in centre clearances.

The Tigers had five scoring opportunities to open the second half and could of buried the Bombers but could only manage three behinds before Bombers took advantage and kicked two goals in quick succession to cut the margin to just seven points.

After a quiet first half, Jobe Watson was the catalyst for the Bombers third quarter surge and after Lovett goaled on the run and then Lloyd added his third and fourth goals for the night, the Bombers had turned around their half time deficit to lead by 12 points going into the final term.

Sam Lonergan extended the Bombers lead early in the last term and the match was sealed after Yiooken Award winner Winderlich kicked two goals in quick sucession as the Bombers did as they pleased over a dispirited Tiger outfit with a 6 goal to 2 finishing term.

“They were fluent and fast-moving in the first half and we weren’t able to combat it,” Essendon coach Matthew Knights said after the game. “But we got going and played very good footy ourselves in the second half and we were able to capitalise.”

“We had to start winning some ball around the centre … which allowed our running game to get moving,”

“We got a better surge mentality and we started to push the ball forward.”
“I thought our forwards in the second half were excellent in stifling Richmond. It just took the edge off the Richmond counter-attack,”

After 9 rounds Essendon sit in an unexpected 4th on the AFL ladder with a 5-4 record and face a tough test next Sunday afternoon at Jihad Stadium against the undefeated Geelong.