A crowd of nearly 10,000 saw a brave Essendon outfit go down to the Eagles last night at Subiaco Oval, 15.10 100 to 14.10  94.

A gastro bug at Essendon during the week had layed a few players low and as a result, we didn't get to see some of our WA boys on show. Kyle Reimers was a noteable omission.

The game was a tight tussle for most of the evening with several lead changes. The bombers persevered with their new game plan under Matthew Knights and it produced some glaring errors at times, however it also produced some brilliant passages of play. It is a real breath of fresh air around the club at the moment and I am really excited about 2008. Obviously the critics at the West Australian don't agree with me with most of the "experts" tipping us to finish 14^th or 15^th and suggesting we may "struggle to win a game before round 9". I'll be rubbing it in if I get a chance !!!

Brent Stanton was brilliant and definitely BOG. His 36 possessions and 4 goals were all class and I am beginning to understand why Hirdy wanted him to wear the famous number 5. Watson and Houli played well in the engine room whilst Davey and Jetta again produced some ferocious speed to put pressure on the Eagles runners and force mistakes. Hille played another good game and is definitely not slow. I watched him lead out onto the wing a couple of times last night and the big guy has some pace!!!

We got our first look at young Bellchambers last night and he did OK with limited minutes on the ground. Of the rest of the rookies who played, Lonergan was probably the pick.

Our back line which is apparently "our biggest weakness" looked alright last night. Fletcher only played limited minutes but did some good things while he was out there, but the biggest surprise package for me so far has been the form of Rama on a half back flank. He looked really good last night, finding space, meshing the back line together and rarely making a mistake. Slattery and Dempsey were OK and Johns really needs to make the back line his go, because I can't see a future for him at Essendon in a forward capacity.

All in all, a pretty good night for us with one dampener. We obviously have a few "feral" supporters (as all clubs do), but some of the language and behaviour we witnessed from people in Essendon colours last night behind the goals at the Subi end was a disgrace. You wonder why people don't want to take their kids to the footy anymore ? The group of morons was eventually removed from the ground in the 3^rd quarter, but for mind that was about 2 quarters too late. We have to accept the fact that we are a minority group in this one eyed state, so let's not make ourselves an easy target for the knockers. If you want to behave like that, do us all a favour and stay home!!! What do you think bomber fans ???