Two things changed week on week for Essendon after their win over Collingwood that has now proven misleadingly encouraging. Both are troubling for them heading to September.

Essendon flattered to deceive by beating Collingwood last week. Beating a weakened Magpies side is not tremendously difficult for top eight teams at the moment.

Zach Merrett was well held against the Demons, with drastic results for Essendon,Credit: Getty Images

This week, against Melbourne, the opposition put a tag on Zach Merrett. Not exactly a novel thought, but plainly Demons coach Simon Goodwin decided there was more to gain than lose in sending Alex Neal-Bullen to the Bombers’ most creative midfielder. The thing about Merrett is that unlike some of the other prime, bigger-bodied midfielders in the AFL he has shown he can be stopped by a hard tag. Left unchecked, Merrett can be devastating – see last round – but if you stop him, the impact on Essendon is just as great.

To choose Neal-Bullen as the tagger was a gamble because while it didn’t take anyone out of their midfield rotation, he plays an incredibly important structural role for the Demons. He plays that high half-forward role that requires long, hard runs through the corridor to act as an extra linking midfielder but also cover defensively for a midfield that likes to run forward of the ball.

So while it worked, there was an element of risk. The upside was it shut Merrett down, Trent Rivers had his best game yet coming into the midfield to replace Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver was serviceable again.

To compound the loss of Merrett’s influence, Sam Durham who has been Essendon’s second-best midfielder this year behind Merrett, had to be moved onto Rivers to tag. So the Bombers effectively lost any creative output from their two best mids. That left an outsized burden on Jye Caldwell, who is a good player........

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