Bombers Will Keep Attacking Youngsters To Learn From Thrashing: Knights

The Age

Monday March 31, 2008

Peter Hanlon

A 99-POINT drubbing at the hands of Geelong will not send Essendon into its shell, with coach Matthew Knights vowing last night that his young team would continue to pursue an attacking rather than dour apprenticeship.

And in news that won't settle Melbourne stomachs, Geelong coach Mark Thompson said his team - that yesterday had 462 possessions for the game, the second highest in AFL history - had not played as it had hoped, had over-possessed the ball, and would prepare to meet the Demons with a resolve to produce "the best footy we're capable of playing".

Geelong's midfield was blistering yesterday, Jimmy Bartel, Gary Ablett, Joel Corey, Joel Selwood, Matthew Stokes and Cameron Ling raffling the votes after seemingly being given free rein by an opponent that chose not to use hard tags.

Thompson was not surprised, but wagered that "next time they play us, they probably won't let them free".

Knights, however, said Mark McVeigh and later Henry Slattery had been tagging Ablett, but the Cats had simply given his Bombers "a huge reality check".

"You've got a Brownlow medallist in Bartel running around, Gary Ablett jnr, you've got Kelly, who's on the top of his game, Joel Corey . . . you can't lock down the whole lot," Knights said.

"We were keen to keep developing our club. We weren't going to try and play slow, chip around and avoid a 15 (goal) to 10 defeat.

"We were going to take the game on to win, because we think that's the best way to develop our young players.

"Our defensive actions weren't up to standard today. They were last week, they weren't this week, and that was the tale of the tape, basically. We've got a long way to go in that area."

Knights said the power of Geelong would not temper the post-mortem. "I'm certainly not looking at it as a wipe-off, just because we were playing Geelong. We've got to learn from this today and we've got to become better at what we do.

"We will attack it in regard to how we want to develop, which would be defensive actions and skill levels."

As if the cold slap the Bombers received wasn't enough, they also lost the exciting Courtenay Dempsey to another hamstring injury, which has plagued his first two seasons in the game. Knights said they would be conservative with his recovery, which will take at least a month. He will persist with Adam McPhee at centre half-forward in Scott Lucas's absence, where the playmaker struggled yesterday against first-gamer Harry Taylor.

"I think he led well. At times he wasn't as clean as he would have liked, but we'll continue with Adam there."

Knights rated Patrick Ryder the only winner in red and black, for his job in outpointing Cameron Mooney. "I give him a big tick for doing that today, a young defender, I thought he was just awesome and really held up. (But) apart from Patrick Ryder, I wouldn't have thought we'd have had a winner on the day."

Thompson said he was not aware the possession count was almost unprecedented and, far from celebrate, it gave the Cats something to work on. "We played a bit of circle work there for a time," he said, pointing to 20 forward entries in the first quarter for only a four-goal reward.

"There were a few little things that happened, but by the end of the game I thought we pretty much corrected them, which was a fantastic achievement."

The form of Ryan Gamble and Trent West continued to please the coach, whose focus will not shift as the club prepares to unfurl its premiership flag at Skilled Stadium on Sunday, with the hapless Melbourne charged with the mammoth task of spoiling the party.

"We're going to have the same amount of meetings," Thompson said. "We're going to look at . . . Melbourne in the same depth and going to try and play the best footy we're capable of playing."

© 2008 The Age

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