After Essendon's victory over Coburg, VFL Senior Coach Leigh Tudor walks us through the performances of our AFL-listed Bombers for the final time this season.
Will Setterfield
29 disposals, six tackles, five clearances, four marks
The opposition spent a lot of time targeting Will at the stoppages with some really hard tags, so for him to fight through that was really good. He played a really important team role with his inside work and put himself in some good positions to impact going forward. Overall, a great balance of contested and uncontested ball, and a really good game.
Sam Weideman
26 disposals, nine marks
Sam had such a good game defensively and won quite a lot of the ball. He was quite aggressive in the air with some big intercept marks and spoils and defended really well for us. He’s adapting really nicely to that new position.
Nick Bryan
24 disposals, 42 hit-outs, seven marks, five clearances, one goal
Nick came back into the VFL side this week and had an excellent game. He absolutely dominated the hit-outs and clearances, looked strong in the air with four contested marks and ultimately defended really well for a ruckman with some key intercepts.
Alastair Lord
24 disposals
‘Lordy’s run and carry game has been super in recent weeks. He’s making himself really dangerous with his positions on the counter attack and is making some really good decisions to attack off half-back. We had a few set plays which he generated nicely with his kicking out of defence, so we were very happy with his effort.
Pat Voss
14 disposals, six marks, two goals
‘Vossy’ has been back to his best over the past couple of weeks, hitting contests really hard, creating opportunities for himself and getting more shots on goal. He was unlucky to miss a few in some blustery conditions down in Williamstown, but he also applied a heap of pressure and provided some physicality for us going the other way.
Alwyn Davey Jnr
18 disposals, four marks, two goals
Alwyn played predominantly through the middle early and won some good inside ball. He worked his way into the game nicely and looked really dangerous setting us up every time we went forward. There were a couple of times on transition where he got caught out of position, but otherwise a really good game.
James Stewart
10 disposals, five goals, four marks, three tackles
We’ve really missed ‘Stuz’, he had a fantastic game. He’s just so valuable and strong with his contested marking at this level, positioning himself well at full forward. He kicked five and was pretty unlucky with a couple of decisions in marking contests going against him, but it’s just so great to see him back and showing what he’s capable of.
Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti
14 disposals, four tackles
When he wins the ball, he’s such a lively option for us. We needed a spark in the third quarter when Coburg got a bit of a run on, and having him in the midfield provided that, getting us going again with a couple of big clearance wins. He really stood up when we needed him and he responded to their challenge well.
Lewis Hayes
17 disposals, four marks
‘Hayesy’ continues to defend really well, getting in some key spoils and little one-percenters at important times. He’s come a long way since round one, his aerial presence has made him really tough for forwards to play against and has fitted in really nicely with our back six throughout the season.
Rhett Montgomerie
Eight disposals, four marks
Rhett didn’t have as much of the ball this week as he’s been getting recently, but with the way the game was played he didn’t have as much of a chance to cut across and intercept. He managed to beat his direct opponent and was forced to play more defensively as the matchups were a bit more isolated. He’s had a really consistent year for us.
Cian McBride
Seven disposals, two marks
Similarly to Rhett, Cian wasn’t able to impact as much with the ball, but defensively he did a really good job to hold up his direct man and won some solid one-on-one’s. Coburg forced us to separate quite a few times and play man-to-man, and Cian held his own.
