	{"id":78754,"date":"2021-08-19T04:36:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T18:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=78754"},"modified":"2021-08-19T09:00:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T23:00:14","slug":"can-the-bombers-do-damage-in-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/can-the-bombers-do-damage-in-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Bombers do damage in finals?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ESSENDON is peaking at the right time of the year and a win over Collingwood in round twenty-three will see them playing finals.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew McGrath, Dylan Shiel and Dyson Heppell have returned from injury and the team overall was dominant in their 68-point win over Gold Coast last Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Given they\u2019ve proven they can knock off a team like the Western Bulldogs, could the Bombers win a final? Club great Tim Watson believes they have the potential.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they can win a final, but I\u2019m not sure how much further they can go after that,\u201d Watson told SEN Breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGetting Andrew McGrath back yesterday, that midfield mix is very good. You get Jake Stringer, Darcy Parish, Zach Merrett, Dylan Shiel, who they used for run more than anything yesterday, and then Sam Draper is such a good ruckman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can compete with anyone in that part of the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garry Lyon agrees, believing the prospective top eight will make for a very interesting finals mix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny of those bottom four of the top eight, Brisbane and Sydney aren\u2019t making up the numbers, the Giants have gathered themselves and I wouldn\u2019t want to play the Bombers so that makes for a fantastic finals series,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe improvement has come across the board, I don\u2019t know if you can pencil it down to one particular part.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir midfield has been strong, but I love their back six.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8211; BY NIC NEGREPONTIS\/ SEN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESSENDON is peaking at the right time of the year and a win over Collingwood in round twenty-three will see them playing finals. Andrew McGrath, Dylan Shiel and Dyson Heppell have returned from injury and the team overall was dominant in their 68-point win over Gold Coast last Sunday. Given they\u2019ve proven they can knock [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/can-the-bombers-do-damage-in-finals\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":78756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-78754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can the Bombers do damage in finals? - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/can-the-bombers-do-damage-in-finals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can the Bombers do damage in finals? - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ESSENDON is peaking at the right time of the year and a win over Collingwood in round twenty-three will see them playing finals. 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