AFL 2020: Essendon Bombers v Brisbane Lions in round 9 – live updates!

Q1: 8 mins remaining: Essendon 0-0 (0) vs Brisbane 3-3 (21) Sam Skinner, another ripping name, has a set shot and a chance to extend Brisbane’s lead – which he does, but only by a point after hitting the woodwork. And then Zorko misses from a similar distance.

Q1: 11 mins remaining: Essendon 0-0 (0) vs Brisbane 3-1 (19) Goal! The Lions hunt in packs, work the ball out of defence and this latest irrepressible burst ends up with Neale, who snaps truly from about 35 metres out. It’s all Brisbane so far, just like it was all Carlton in the first quarter earlier on. Just saying.

Q1: 13 mins remaining: Essendon 0-0 (0) vs Brisbane 2-1 (13) Goal! Real issues for the Bombers here with Brisbane dominating close to the ground. Cameron crumbs a loose ball, fumbles but manages to retain his composure to soccer through from just outside the goal square. Only one side in it early on.

Q1: 14 mins remaining: Essendon 0-0 (0) vs Brisbane 1-1 (7) Goal! More superb work out of congestion sees McCarthy end up on a chain of handpasses and he snaps truly for the game’s first major.

Q1: 15 mins remaining: Essendon 0-0 (0) vs Brisbane 0-1 (1) Good clearance work from the Lions finds Charlie Cameron on the lead. Fresh from signing a five-year contract extension, Charlie fluffs his lines and misses his set shot to the left. That’s footy.

Not long to go, just enough time for a few words from Ezra Finkelstien. Love the name.

Brisbane have come a long way over the last few years.It was only recently that they were getting smashed each week and fired coaches more frequently than Mitch Robinson changes hairstyles. Ever since Chris Fagan came in the team has been transformed, now just need to win finals footy.

Wishing Majak Daw all the very best on his return to the AFL tomorrow against Adelaide, 700-plus days since has last senior appearance. He’s done it real tough, Majak, and is now emerging on the other side. Give yourself a treat before this game starts and have a read of Rohan Connolly’s piece on this tortured, inspirational fellow.

Carlton led Hawthorn by five goals during the first quarter but have just lost by five goals. Weird? Not at all. These are the days of our lives.

So back to those debutants – not debutantes as I once wrote as a clueless young journalist. Not that I assume the foetal position and suck my thumb when I relive the moment a senior sub-editor let me know in no uncertain terms that a debutante is a young woman who announces her arrival as societal force at a ball, or something like that. I digress. Back to tonight’s newcomers, I was rather excited when doing my daily trawl to come across this headline: Lions, Dons to hand debuts to 200cm, 100kgs beasts. Knowing full well these hectic schedules are stretching lists to the limit, I feared Brisbane and Essendon had journeyed to the centre of the earth for reinforcements. But no, it’s just Connor Ballenden and Sam Draper. Which is reassuring.

Congratulations to Adam Saad and Mitch Robinson, the former celebrating his 100th AFL appearance tonight and the latter his 200th. These are the occasions of which young footballers dream. I bet neither envisaged doing so in front of a half-empty stadium – please excuse my negative view; pre-Covid I was definitely a glass-half-full guy – or in Saad’s case, in a ‘home’ game on the Gold Coast. Continuing the theme of A Clockwork Orange, had Mitch Robinson been around in 1971 and seeking acting roles, I’d bet London to a brick Stanley Kubrick would’ve cast him in a heartbeat. And I mean that in the most complimentary way. The most muscular actor that never was.