ANDREW BEWS: Essendon and Richmond don't deserve blockbuster tag
Michael Auciello | May 27th, 2009
THIS is not going to be a very popular article.
Many out there in the footy world will possibly look at this and assess it as taking a cheap shot at one of the great innovations of the footy world.
Maybe so, but to me the Bombers are the most over-publicised underachievers in the AFL.
They've been window dressing as many games as they can to try to draw crowds to lift their profile out there in the greater football community.
Good marketing? Well, yes, I'll agree, but the way Essendon claims or hijacks any untagged event in the footy calendar looks desperate and is beginning to drive me up the wall.
The Nutty Professor Kevin Sheedy was a master of setting up these types of gimmicks during his reign at the Bombers - he initiated and drove most of these matches.
The games had a special something when Essendon and its opposition stood at the top of the table, but for me they pale into insignificance when one of the combatants is stuck at the foot of the ladder.
Don't believe the old footy clich that "it doesn't matter where these two teams are on the ladder".
These matches are so much better when the best teams were clashing mid-season. Unfortunately they don't capture the imagination when one of the bottom teams is being asked to be one of the drawcards.
The AFL even helped prop up the Dreamtime at the 'G clash with the whole round being named the 'Indigenous Round', which I think was a more credible way of acknowledging the contribution of that corner of the competition's player group.
I was bemused by some of the reports from the Dreamtime at the 'G game though; one bit of script that caught my eye was this little gem.
"It was Essendon's second win from five of these encounters, which form the centerpiece of the AFL's Indigenous Round."
I don't know how people get it so wrong or get caught up in such delusional trumped up hype; this was a battle of two sides that have been strugglers for longer than I'd like to think about. At least Essendon has crept up the ladder somewhat this year. But the Bombers have only played a couple of the very good sides. With wins over Fremantle early in the season Carlton in a close one Collingwood, Hawthorn and Richmond, the underdone and injury-crippled Hawks remain the only genuine scalp of credibility.
The Tigers, though, play like they hardly know each other - any semblance of a team is clearly lacking.
Most of the time players are simply trying to stay in the side for next week. The game was ordinary at best and further evidence to that was the amount in which Essendon won by. The embarrassing thing for them was how long it took them to put the game beyond doubt.
For the record there is only one game worth winning or holding bragging rights for and the Hawks have these rights currently.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2009/05/27/73491_geelong_sports.html
