Essendon’s demoralising loss to Richmond has been compounded by a massive casualty list as Dreamtime at the ’G turned into a nightmare on the injury front for both clubs.
Bombers captain Andrew McGrath, key forward Archer May and Richmond spearhead Tom Lynch were all hospitalised as injury claimed seven players in the Tigers’ upset 18-point win – 10.14 (74) to 7.14 (56) – at the MCG on Friday night.
The Dons were hit hardest with five injuries, losing McGrath to a sickening broken jaw, Sam Durham to concussion, Matt Guelfi to a hamstring strain and Jye Caldwell to a suspected ankle syndesmosis injury – all before half-time – as well as May to a rib issue.
The Tigers lost promising young forward Jonty Faull to concussion, just minutes after he accidentally elbowed McGrath in a contest, while Lynch played out the match unable to talk after copping a knock from Ben McKay’s shoulder to his voice box in the second term.
Essendon’s heavy injury toll provided mitigating circumstances for coach Brad Scott, who needed to send Caldwell out on the field to ensure his team had a spot on the bench to make rotations in the final quarter after May was injured.
The Bombers have dropped to last on the ladder, a win behind the 17th-placed Tigers, and in grave danger of securing the wooden spoon for just the second time since 1933.
McGrath’s injury, described in graphic detail by Scott, is the most serious.
“He’s terrible,” Scott said of his captain’s plight.
“When you break your jaw and a tooth comes out in the incident, and he’s got a pretty noticeable crack that you can see and feel in his jaw, it’s not a good one.
“I’m not diagnosing it, it’s just like that one’s pretty obvious, but sometimes you can put a plate in it, and they can come back pretty quickly, but I’m not sure on that.”
Caldwell was in the wars in the first quarter but bravely played out the game. He had Bombers fans dreaming of the big steal when he converted from 40 metres out in the final term to narrow the margin to just seven points.
“I don’t know the exact incident but talking to him at quarter-time, someone fell across his leg,” Scott said.
“I’m not a doctor, it’s a syndesmosis mechanism but, as I said to the doctors, if there’s a syndesmosis injury, let’s just take him off because he’s too important.
“He’s a warrior, but they assured me that there was no risk of further damage. Unfortunately, we didn’t have to take him off because we would have been playing short.”
Durham was concussed after copping a knee to head from Lynch in a marking contest in the first quarter. The rugged midfielder tried to play on for a few minutes but, after dropping a handball and failing to make contact while attempting a handpass, left the ground.
Already with 12 on the injury list before the game, the Bombers are now in similar territory to the second half of their wretched 2025 campaign, when they were also decimated.
“It’s like a bit like last week where Peter Wright hurts his PCL in the second ruck contest of the game and just tries to hobble through,” Scott said.
“We’re not shying away from the challenges we’ve got in front of us, but it’s hard tonight not to feel this sense of deja vu over the last 18 months of just getting guys on the park to build something to show improvement when you’re just throwing guys from half-back to half-forward, to the goal square, to on-ball to try and patch it together.
“We lost control the game a bit in the bit in the second quarter when we were just a mess, and we just had guys coming off.”
The Tigers were considering sending Lynch to hospital, but he wanted to play out the match to honour premiership hero Jayden Short in his 200th game.
Lynch, who endured a difficult night in front of the sticks, booted two goals, including a priceless major in the final quarter to fend off Essendon’s charge.
“He’s a tough bugger, and he’s a leader of our footy club for a reason,” Tigers coach Adem Yze said of Lynch.
“At half-time, we thought he was going to hospital. He didn’t want to. He wanted to play for Shorty. He couldn’t talk, he’s hurt his throat, so we don’t know how bad that is.
“It was just around his voice. It’s funny, he’s the godfather of our forward line, and we need him to talk and lead, so we put it on our younger forwards to obviously shoulder that load because he couldn’t.
“His contest and aerial power tonight was exactly what we needed. He got through the game, and now he’s just gone to hospital for scans and precautions. [I’m] really proud of his effort, and Shorty would be too.”
The Tigers had 18 on their injury list during the week but will have four AFL-listed players lining up in the VFL on Saturday.
Bombers on-baller Darcy Parish won the Yiyooken Trophy after being judged best afield on Friday night in a losing effort, but he accepted the award to a chorus of boos from Richmond fans, with many of the Bombers’ faithful having already left the ground.
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