Balanced Bombers can blitz
Essendon can’t be sure how this year will pan out. But Saturday night's win over Hawthorn provided at least some concrete evidence that the new-look Bombers' best can be pretty impressive.
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Rohan Connolly
Rohan Connolly, a senior football writer for The Age and radio broadcaster with sports radio station 1116 SEN, has been covering the game since 1983. A multi-AFL Media Association award-winner known for his passion and love of the game, he analyses the AFL for the newspaper and contributes a blog and weekly video, "Footy Fix", for The Age's football website, Real Footy.
Worsfold believes Bombers can get better
Essendon coach John Worsfold believes the Bombers can continue to get better as players old and new alike become more familiar with each other.
Bombers stun Hawks for emotional triumph
Emotion can take you only so far in football. But when it drives a stirring win over an old and bitter rival, it's some sort of fuel.
Banned Bombers come back into new world order
Essendon head into the first game of 2017 with up to half a team of players who've been out of the game for a year. How do they fit in to the new Bombers order? We take a look on a case-by-case basis.
Essendon's Zach Merrett believes Bombers can win flag
Essendon vice-captain Zach Merrett believes his club can contend for the 2017 AFL premiership, following the fairytale story of the Western Bulldogs last year.
Carlton ponders a third AFL debutant
Carlton is pondering handing a third youngster his AFL debut ahead of tonight's season-opener against Richmond at the MCG.
AFL clubs slugging supporters more for seats in opening round
Supporters are being slugged more for reserved seats in the opening round of the AFL under the dynamic pricing system.
Two local lads from Leongatha lead the way for Dons and Hawks
Dairy farming and sport have always been two staples of Leongatha, in Victoria's south-east. But it's doubtful the town will ever have had a prouder sporting moment than when the Bombers and Hawks run down the race, led by two local boys.
Is 2017 the year AFL football becomes handball happy?
Few clubs can hope to emulate a tale of football romance as large as that scripted by the Western Bulldogs in 2016. But they can follow the means by which that triumph was achieved. And that means handball. Lots of it.
Rohan Connolly's 2017 ladder predictions
It's a mug's game, gazing into the crystal football, but I'm shrugging off last year's pathetic prognostications to have another go at predicting who'll finish where on the AFL ladder.
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