Essendon’s 2009 AFL Season came to a crashing and embarrassing end on Friday night, after the Adelaide Crows bundled the Bombers out of the AFL Finals Series with a 96 point victory at AAMI Stadium in their AFL Elimination Final clash.

After a tight first quarter, the Crows stamped their authority on the contest with an eight goal to two second quarter and went on with the job in the second half to run out 26.10 (166) to 10.10 (70) winners.

The Crows were first on the scoreboard via a Bernie Vince goal after five minutes but Bomber Angus Monfries silenced his former hometown crowd with an answering goal immediately afterwards following a 50m penalty. Crow forward Kurt Tippett, who destroyed the Bombers earlier in the season added his first for the night before Michael Quinn – a late replacement for ruckman Tom Bellchambers goalled to tie the scores with five minutes left to play in the first stanza. The Corws however hit back with two of the term’s last three goals to take a six-point lead at the first break. 

The Crows piled on the first three goals of the second quarter to take a handy break before Essendon pulled goals back through Adam McPhee and Brent Stanton but the Crows responded each time to quash any thoughts of a Bomber revival. Goals to Richard Douglas, Tippett and Chris Knights put Adelaide 39 points up at the main break. 

Both teams traded the first four goals of the second half with McPhee contributing both of Essendon’s early majors. Crow ruckman Ivan Maric extended Adelaide’s lead and Tippett added another a minute later to put the home side 46 points up. Trent Hentschel and Scott Thompson joined the Crow party and suddenly the lead was beyond 10 goals and the match over as a contest. McPhee chipped in with his third for the term, but a six goal to three quarter saw the Crows lead blow out to 61 points with a quarter left to play.

The final term turned into a training drill with the Crows slammed on six straight goals as the lead approached the triple digit mark. Ex-Crow Hayden Skipworth and Andrew Lovett got their names in the scorebook with the Bombers only two for the term as the home side added eight goals of their own.

Brent Stanton finished with 24 touches, as did Nathan Lovett-Murray. McPhee finished with a four goal haul while Andrew Welsh and Ricky Dyson were on a very short list of ‘best’ Bomber players on a forgettable night.

“We’ve got a long way to go but I think we knew that even before tonight that we’ve got to make up some ground between us and the good sides,” Essendon coach Matthew Knights said after the match. “We’ve had a reasonably good month, but we just had an awful night tonight and paid the price heavily on the scoreboard.”

The Bombers have all summer now to ponder life and look to take a further step forward in 2010.