Round 11
	V
Essendon 7.7 (49)		Port Adelaide 16.12 (108)

I certainly felt we went into this game with a lot of confidence and the feeling that Port was going to win compared to last year's meeting with Essendon at Footy Park when we could not believe it when Port beat Essendon was quite different.

Obviously the Bombers started with a fairly depleted line up - no Hird, Misiti, Lloyd, Fletcher etc but you take what you can get and a win is a win. And a fairly convincing one at that. Port got it right straight out of the blocks kicking four goals to their 1 and it looked like we had them sussed. Some great centre work and even better defending by the likes of Hardwick who got a really big "reception" from the Essendon fans but put in a solid performance. Tredrea needs some serious attention about kicking from the front of goal. He just can't do it sometimes and it is bloody frustrating! Yet he can kick some wicked checksides or goals from the boundary line from impossible angles??

Nick Stevens was just brilliant yet again and it is obvious his market value has probably increased significantly since the start of this year. In fact, the same has probably happenned to a shitload of Port players. Anyway, come second quarter, Sheeds worked out that the only way they were going to score was by sending the big men down forward and getting the centre to bomb it in which seemed to work. I thought we were letting the foot off the pedal but thankfully, after half time, they came back and finished a small demolition job which was quite satisfying indeed.

It certainly helped our percentage with us trailing the Lions by 7% for top spot, thrashing the Tigers here at Footy Park next round should do the trick. What a brilliant first half of the season. A well deserved break for State of Origin next week giving a bit more recuperation time, especially to Gavin, who we miss, and Monty for his small knee op.

Highlight:
1) 6 goals from 7 kicks - who else but Stuey
2) Tredrea's freak goal

Lowlight:
1) Tredrea's crap kicking from out front of goal

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