The Bomber report

Last week: As predicted Essendon were too good for South Melbourne who clearly had a serious premiership hangover, particularly in the first quarter. It was very pleasing to see Essendon get a big lead in the first quarter and actually go on and win the game. In recent years they have tended to get a lead early and then let it slip. What was not so good was that in Adelaide, we were forced to watch the Port Adelaide v. North Melbourne game—not much of a game unless you were a North supporter. The TV coverage did not even give progress scores from the Bombers/Swans game in Melbourne (I eventually got the score off ABC radio). In fact the commentary of the Port-North game could have been considerably improved all round. It always dangerous to make predictions after one round, but Port look like they are in for a tough year.

This week: This week Essendon travel to Brisbane who were of course flogged unmercifully by Geelong last week—could not happen to a nicer team — a lot of teams will do that to Brisbane in the next couple of years if they get the chance. It is hard to see Brisbane playing as badly this week—any team with Jonathon Brown at centre half forward has to be respected, particularly at home. Brisbane may well be where Essendon was in the couple of years after their premierships of 1984/85 when they took all before them—as they went downhill, partly because of injuries, they would be superb one week and pretty bad the next week. This week Brisbane will no doubt try and knock the Essendon players off their game—it will be a good test for the younger Essendon brigade and we will know more about them after this week. Prediction for this week: Essendon by two goals.

Top Four prediction: West Coast, Adelaide, St Kilda, Geelong