Essendon coach Brad Scott has thrown his support behind Peter Wright and defended the Bombers’ physical approach following their fiery 30-point loss to undefeated Sydney at the SCG.
Saturday night’s match was barely four minutes old when Wright leapt into the air and landed a huge bump on Swans midfielder Harry Cunningham, who was left concussed.
Cunningham was taken from the field on a stretcher and subbed out of the match.
Wright, who was targeted with boos from the crowd for the rest of the match, faces a lengthy suspension after the Bombers’ 19.17 (131) to 15.11 (101) defeat.
“I can’t comment on issues that might be before the MRO,” Scott said.
“I’m not going to talk about the incident but the only thing I can say is Peter Wright is a well-known ball player. He always has been, since he was a kid.”
Wright was set upon by several irate Swans players, before more spot fires erupted after Bombers ruckman Sam Draper cannoned into Jake Lloyd and conceded a 50-metre penalty.
Scott spoke on Thursday of wanting his charges to display a combative “Essendon edge” but Swans forward Tom Papley, who starred with four goals and 24 disposals, accused the Bombers of overstepping the mark on Saturday night.
“They’re trying to get after us, it’s all off the ball,” Papley told Seven Network boundary rider Cameron Ling at half-time.
“We’re just worried about the ball. We’ll keep being hard in the contest and get the job done.”
Scott is adamant his team’s premeditated belligerence was the best way to foil the Swans.
“Sydney have dominated the last few weeks and they’ve got a lot of players who are very slick and good with the ball in hand,” he said.
“Their ball movement is very solid at the moment.
“If we just sat back and watched them do that, it was going to be a long, difficult night.
“We needed to combat that with some physicality in the contest.
“We could either make it into an athletics contest or we could compete in the contest and get the ball going our way.”
Swans coach John Longmire was not surprised by the Bombers’ aggression as he counts the cost of the loss of Cunningham for the Easter Sunday encounter with Richmond.
“They clearly came out with an intent in the physical space,” Longmire said.
“They talked about it during the week and were very clear about the edge they wanted to play with.
“We knew they’d be coming with that.
“From our point of view it’s going to be disappointing to miss Harry for a bit now.”
AAP
Source: AFL NEWS ABC
