I WILL admit it. When Brendan Fevola took that mark late in the final quarter last Saturday I thought the Blues had beaten us.

I figured he’d kick the goal and a quick break from the centre clearance would be our only hope. So when Fev’s kick hit the post, it’s fair to say we got out of jail.

Last week’s game was a superb spectacle between two young and exciting teams played in quite an intense atmosphere.

As the forwards coach, I was pleased to see Roughy step up and play the role he did on the weekend. It was great from the sense that we have a number of options up forward from which we can direct our attack through. Roughy and Lance Franklin played their roles really well on the weekend. Buddy’s pressure on the opposition ball carrier was a real standout and Roughy’s ability to make good position and finish off on the weekend was pleasing. We had a number of other forwards too who also contributed on the scoreboard and created pressure around the ball.

It was also pleasing to see Beau Dowler take his chance on the weekend. Beau finished the game with 24 touches and has really taken his opportunity over the last two weeks.

Another positive to come from the game is that we came out relatively unscathed. We’ve got to make sure when we get players back we can keep them in and hopefully this becomes more of a regular occurrence over the next month or so.

It’s another big game this week against Essendon. While we have a good recent record against the Bombers, however I don’t think how we’ve gone over the last couple of years is going to make too much difference to what happens on Friday night.

They’ve got a young list that is playing some pretty good footy. When you think about it, both teams are 3-3. They have shown that in big games they can play some exciting footy. It is going to be another big challenge for us.