Where the first term the ball pinged end to end this was a short quarter brought back to a grind with just one goal kicked – Archie Perkins bringing up his third gal of the game. It might have been different – Peter Wright kicked one out on the full and another added from a set shot.
The Kangaroos tightened up the space in their defensive zone – reduced the uncontested marking game of Essendon that cut them up in the first term such that it was 43 to 29 uncontested marks at half-time which is only four more the difference than it was at quarter time. It meant they held Essendon up and both sides were forced to continually retreat and lose ground by handball before moving forward.
Jade Gresham is enjoying one of his better games for the Bombers in terms of involvement, but he has missed a couple of chances.
