ESSENDON young gun Sullivan Robey might not play again in 2026 after injuring his knee in Saturday’s 93-point loss, but a major knee injury has been ruled out by the Bombers.
It wasn’t the Bombers’ only injury concern out of the loss, with luckless defender Jordan Ridley also injuring his foot against Hawthorn.
Robey was helped off the MCG in the third quarter and didn’t take any further part in the game against after his leg was caught in a tackle.
Bombers caretaker coach Dean Solomon said the 2025 pick No.9 will undergo a scan but the club believes Robey has injured his medial ligament and has escaped a serious issue.
“They’ve ruled out the ACL, so there’s nothing to that level, which is a great thing, but it didn’t look good,” Solomon told reporters after the loss on Saturday night.
“I mean for a young player to go down like he did and then he was in a fair bit of pain on the bench, we were concerned about him, but fingers crossed we get a good outcome there.
“The doctors seem to be reasonably positive. (They believe it is) nothing too major, which is a good thing, but if he is sore or if there’s any risk, we won’t be pushing him too hard for the rest of this year.
“But let’s just wait to see what we can identify from the scans and then and then go from there. But I think anything major has been ruled out.”
Ridley exited the game in the second quarter with a foot injury and will also undergo a scan after another frustrating injury setback for the 2020 Crichton Medallist, who has played only seven games this year after 10 in 2025 and nine in 2024.
“He just landed and felt something on the bottom of his foot – a tweak or pull. They’re unsure what it is at the moment, but I don’t think they’re majorly concerned about anything,” Solomon said.
“But we’ll have scans the next day or two and identify what the problem is. Fingers crossed best case scenario from what they’ve said is he might be available next week. Fingers crossed, but we’ll wait and see what the outcome of those scans are.”
Six days after the first win of Solomon’s stint as caretaker coach, Essendon was smashed by 15 goals by a premiership contender, despite the Bombers winning the tackle count by 12.
Solomon identified the key issue in the loss was an inability to limit Hawthorn’s control of the ball, which led to a mark differential of -75 and disposal differential of -160.
“It was a good learning experience, but I reckon it was our inability to defend uncontested marks. It has has been, and is still an issue for us. We felt like at times that pressure in our tackle count is where we want it to be,” he said.
But then they own the ball by foot and you can’t apply pressure, so the next layer we need to work on is defending that. And that’s forwards, mids and defenders in unison. How we reduce that, how we force them wide, keep them wide and send them long. We just can’t do that at the moment.
“It was a fear coming into the game. We had 150 uncontested marks against us last time we played them. And it was it was the thing we identified. And we got I think they had 139 tonight. So, that’s what got us.”
Hawks coach Sam Mitchell ruled out any facial issues for Mitch Lewis, whose day ended in the first quarter after a clash of heads with Jaxon Artemis.
Lewis turned his back on free agency opportunities elsewhere to sign a four-year extension this week, presented well in the rooms after the game but will now miss the trip to Launceston in round 21.
“Concussions are a very complicated thing. He obviously has been put into the protocol, so he’ll certainly miss next week. Hopefully he can come out of that pretty quickly and unscathed,” Mitchell said post-game.
“Sometimes a player post-game is still a bit rattled and you can tell they’ve had a concussion. He’s not like that. So I’m hopeful (he will only miss one game) but these things are very inconsistent in the way they behave. I have full faith in the medical team that they’ll do the right thing by Mitch and see what happens in the next couple of weeks.”
Jack Gunston will attract attention after kicking an equal career-high seven goals to reach 600 career goals and reignite his pursuit of the Coleman Medal with four rounds to play.
But Mitchell believes Jarman Impey is also worthy of a maiden All-Australian blazer following another brilliant performance, where the half-back amassed 37 disposals, 836 metres gained, two goal assists, a goal and nine inside 50s.
“100 per cent he does. I thought he was a clear number one half-back in the league before he hurt himself, and then he missed a couple of games obviously, which you know, potentially knocks you back,” Mitchell said.
“But I think he’s put back-to-back PB possession counts – which gets him on your guy’s radar – but he’s actually a defender and he defends really well, like his intercept marking if you look up intercept marks for the last couple of years and where he sits, he’s a bit like Wizard at the other end, you look at all the goalkickers and he’s the only one that’s small. And Jarman’s a bit the same with his intercept marketing.
“He’s the smallest sort of intercept mark player in the competition. I love coaching him and having him with us. And while I’ve got the All-Australian thing on, I think Blake Hardwick should probably be an Australian as well. If he can put that one on the grab would be great.
