2025 AFL Season Round 22: Sydney v Essendon

This is the match report for the match played on 2 August 2025 between Sydney and Essendon during round twenty-two of the 2025 season of the Australian Football League. Sydney hosted Essendon at the SCG. Callum Mills captained the hosts. Zach Merrett captained the visitors with Andrew McGrath as vice-captain. The hosts were coached by Dean Cox and the visitors were coached by Brad Scott.

Sydney (9.14.68) defeated Essendon (7.12.54).

Match Details

Season: 2025 AFL Season
Round: Round 22
Teams: Sydney v Essendon
Date: Saturday 2 August 2025
Time: 4:15 PM
Venue: SCG
Attendance: 20,805

Match Results

Outcome: Sydney def. Essendon
Score: 9.14.68 - 7.12.54

Quarter Breakdown

	Q1			Q2			Q3			Q4			Final
Sydney	4	.	3	6	.	9	8	.	12	9	.	14	9	.	14	(68)
Essendon	2	.	4	2	.	6	4	.	10	7	.	12	7	.	12	(54)
Margin	SYDN by 11			SYDN by 27			SYDN by 26			SYDN by 14			SYDN by 14
Duration	32:15			29:14			30:09			31:27			2:03:05

Score Worm

This chart is oriented such that the margin is positive when the hosts (Sydney) are in the lead and is negative when the visitors (Essendon) are in the lead.

Honour Roll

Sydney

Captain: Callum Mills
Coach: Dean Cox

Essendon

Captain: Zach Merrett
Vice-Captain: Andrew McGrath
Coach: Brad Scott

Brownlow Votes

Player	Team	#	Votes
Brodie Grundy	SYDN	4	3
Errol Gulden	SYDN	21	2
Nick Blakey	SYDN	22	1

AFLCA Champion Votes

Player	Team	#	Votes	5	4	3	2	1

Player Statistics

Sydney

#	Player	Pos.	ToG%	GL	BH	DI	KI	HB	MK	HO	TA	CL	CR	FF	FA	RF	IF
22	Blakey, Nick	CHB	95%	0	1	28	23	5	10	0	3	0	0	0	0	4	8
39	Buller, Jack	CHF	81%	1	1	12	5	7	7	0	2	0	3	3	2	0	2
16	Campbell, Braeden	INT	82%	2	1	17	9	8	4	0	1	0	2	0	1	0	3
33	Cleary, Caiden	SUB↑	26%	0	0	7	3	4	3	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	1
7	Cunningham, Harry	INT	77%	0	0	14	11	3	7	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	1
18	Dattoli, Jesse	FPR	70%	0	2	13	5	8	5	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	2
13	Florent, Oliver	WL	70%	0	0	12	7	5	4	0	4	0	0	0	0	2	2
4	Grundy, Brodie	RU	84%	0	1	39	11	28	8	32	1	13	3	3	1	0	2
21	Gulden, Errol	RO	86%	1	0	30	17	13	7	0	4	0	4	0	2	5	5
5	Heeney, Isaac	RR	85%	1	1	28	19	9	7	0	0	7	2	0	1	0	6
17	Jordon, James	HFFR	91%	0	0	12	6	6	3	0	3	2	5	1	3	1	2
19	Ladhams, Peter	INT↓	54%	0	1	6	4	2	2	4	1	1	5	1	3	0	1
44	Lloyd, Jake	WR	82%	0	1	17	9	8	7	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	2
30	McCartin, Tom	BPR	89%	0	0	11	7	4	6	0	0	0	5	0	4	2	0
27	McInerney, Justin	FPL	81%	2	0	27	11	16	8	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	0
43	Melican, Lewis	BPL	82%	0	0	10	9	1	5	0	1	0	2	0	1	3	2
14	Mills, Callum (c)	HBFL	79%	0	0	23	16	7	7	0	4	0	0	1	0	8	3
11	Papley, Tom	FF	83%	1	0	13	7	6	4	0	3	1	3	2	1	0	5
24	Rampe, Dane	FB	89%	0	0	25	18	7	12	0	1	0	4	0	2	8	3
8	Rowbottom, James	HFFL	79%	1	2	12	8	4	5	0	6	0	1	0	0	0	1
12	Sheldrick, Angus	INT	68%	0	0	24	14	10	7	0	0	2	2	0	1	1	4
1	Warner, Chad	C	79%	0	0	26	18	8	5	0	2	4	6	2	0	1	5
15	Wicks, Sam	HBFR	89%	0	0	9	6	3	3	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	1
Rushed					3
Total (23 players)				9	14	415	243	172	136	36	44	33	53	15	23	38	61

C. Cleary replaced P. Ladhams.

Essendon

#	Player	Pos.	ToG%	GL	BH	DI	KI	HB	MK	HO	TA	CL	CR	FF	FA	RF	IF
46	Blakiston, Lachlan	CHB	90%	1	0	11	5	6	2	7	1	2	4	1	2	4	2
36	Clarke, Angus	FPL	88%	1	0	11	6	5	1	0	0	0	2	1	0	3	0
22	Durham, Sam	RO	78%	0	1	22	15	7	5	0	1	5	5	1	1	1	7
28	Duursma, Xavier	INT	83%	0	0	21	10	11	2	0	4	2	1	2	0	1	2
17	Goldstein, Todd	INT	72%	0	0	7	2	5	1	14	0	1	1	1	1	1	0
11	Gresham, Jade	HFFR	84%	0	0	20	11	9	2	0	4	7	0	1	0	3	4
35	Guelfi, Matt	RU	84%	1	0	3	3	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	2
8	Hobbs, Ben	INT	71%	0	2	10	7	3	2	0	2	1	5	0	3	1	1
10	Kako, Isaac	FPR	84%	1	0	7	5	2	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	2
15	Laverde, Jayden	FB	100%	0	0	22	9	13	4	0	2	1	1	0	0	5	0
34	Lual, Luamon	INT	81%	0	0	10	4	6	3	0	3	2	2	0	1	2	0
26	May, Archie	WL	86%	1	0	8	6	2	1	0	0	0	2	3	1	3	1
1	McGrath, Andrew (vc)	BPL	87%	0	1	26	13	13	2	0	5	7	1	0	0	5	5
48	McMahon, Liam	FF↓	48%	0	1	4	2	2	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
7	Merrett, Zach (c)	C	91%	0	1	19	12	7	2	0	4	3	4	3	0	0	6
42	Nguyen, Jayden	BPR	79%	0	0	5	2	3	0	0	3	1	0	1	0	0	0
16	Perkins, Archie	HFFL	72%	1	0	10	4	6	1	0	2	0	1	1	1	0	0
25	Prior, Jaxon	WR	92%	0	0	19	13	6	4	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	3
27	Redman, Mason	HBFL	68%	1	0	20	19	1	4	0	1	0	3	2	2	9	2
21	Roberts, Archie	HBFR	91%	0	1	21	12	9	2	0	1	0	2	0	1	8	3
9	Shiel, Dylan	RR	64%	0	0	11	7	4	0	0	5	2	3	2	1	2	2
47	Smartt, Oskar	SUB↑	20%	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
20	Wright, Peter	CHF	88%	0	1	14	8	6	2	5	3	1	3	4	1	1	2
Rushed					4
Total (23 players)				7	12	302	175	127	42	26	50	37	41	23	15	51	45

O. Smartt replaced L. McMahon.

Legend

ToG%: Time-on-Ground Percentage, GL: Goals, BH: Behinds, DI: Disposals, KI: Kicks, HB: Handballs, MK: Marks, HO: Hitouts, TA: Tackles, CL: Clearances, CR: Clangers, FF: Free Kicks For, FA: Free Kicks Against, RF: Rebounds Inside 50, IF: Inside 50s

Player Line-Up

Sydney							Coach: Dean Cox
BACK							FOLLOWER		INTERCHANGE
	1	A. McGrath (vc)	15	J. Laverde	42	J. Nguyen	4	B. Grundy	16	B. Campbell
	18	J. Dattoli	11	T. Papley	27	J. McInerney	5	I. Heeney	7	H. Cunningham
FORWARD							21	E. Gulden	19	P. Ladhams
HALF-BACK									12	A. Sheldrick
	27	M. Redman	46	L. Blakiston	21	A. Roberts			33	C. Cleary
	17	J. Jordon	39	J. Buller	8	J. Rowbottom
HALF-FORWARD
CENTRE
	26	A. May	7	Z. Merrett (c)	25	J. Prior
	44	J. Lloyd	1	C. Warner	13	O. Florent	FOLLOWER		INTERCHANGE
CENTRE							35	M. Guelfi	28	X. Duursma
HALF-FORWARD							9	D. Shiel	17	T. Goldstein
	16	A. Perkins	20	P. Wright	11	J. Gresham	22	S. Durham	8	B. Hobbs
	15	S. Wicks	22	N. Blakey	14	C. Mills (c)			34	L. Lual
HALF-BACK									47	O. Smartt
FORWARD
	36	A. Clarke	48	L. McMahon	10	I. Kako
	30	T. McCartin	24	D. Rampe	43	L. Melican
BACK
Essendon							Coach: Brad Scott

Score Timeline

Quarter	Team	Scoring Event	Score			Time
Q1	ESSE	Andrew McGrath behind	0.0.0	-	0.1.1	01:58
	SYDN	Errol Gulden goal	1.0.6	-	0.1.1	04:11
	SYDN	James Rowbottom behind	1.1.7	-	0.1.1	07:44
	ESSE	Rushed behind	1.1.7	-	0.2.2	08:23
	ESSE	Archie Perkins goal	1.1.7	-	1.2.8	09:48
	ESSE	Liam McMahon behind	1.1.7	-	1.3.9	15:00
	SYDN	Jesse Dattoli behind	1.2.8	-	1.3.9	16:24
	ESSE	Matt Guelfi goal	1.2.8	-	2.3.15	18:50
	SYDN	Braeden Campbell goal	2.2.14	-	2.3.15	20:49
	SYDN	James Rowbottom behind	2.3.15	-	2.3.15	22:51
	SYDN	Justin McInerney goal	3.3.21	-	2.3.15	24:39
	ESSE	Rushed behind	3.3.21	-	2.4.16	26:20
	SYDN	James Rowbottom goal	4.3.27	-	2.4.16	29:26
Q2	SYDN	Braeden Campbell behind	4.4.28	-	2.4.16	01:45
	ESSE	Archie Roberts behind	4.4.28	-	2.5.17	03:02
	SYDN	Jake Lloyd behind	4.5.29	-	2.5.17	06:03
	SYDN	Brodie Grundy behind	4.6.30	-	2.5.17	07:44
	ESSE	Sam Durham behind	4.6.30	-	2.6.18	11:03
	SYDN	Nick Blakey behind	4.7.31	-	2.6.18	17:42
	SYDN	Peter Ladhams behind	4.8.32	-	2.6.18	19:17
	SYDN	Jack Buller goal	5.8.38	-	2.6.18	20:18
	SYDN	Jesse Dattoli behind	5.9.39	-	2.6.18	22:06
	SYDN	Tom Papley goal	6.9.45	-	2.6.18	27:31
Q3	ESSE	Ben Hobbs behind	6.9.45	-	2.7.19	00:30
	ESSE	Angus Clarke goal	6.9.45	-	3.7.25	01:31
	SYDN	Isaac Heeney goal	7.9.51	-	3.7.25	04:27
	ESSE	Rushed behind	7.9.51	-	3.8.26	06:48
	ESSE	Archie May goal	7.9.51	-	4.8.32	08:44
	ESSE	Ben Hobbs behind	7.9.51	-	4.9.33	10:55
	SYDN	Rushed behind	7.10.52	-	4.9.33	16:30
	SYDN	Justin McInerney goal	8.10.58	-	4.9.33	19:15
	ESSE	Rushed behind	8.10.58	-	4.10.34	21:28
	SYDN	Jack Buller behind	8.11.59	-	4.10.34	25:52
	SYDN	Isaac Heeney behind	8.12.60	-	4.10.34	27:24
Q4	SYDN	Rushed behind	8.13.61	-	4.10.34	01:00
	SYDN	Braeden Campbell goal	9.13.67	-	4.10.34	02:45
	ESSE	Mason Redman goal	9.13.67	-	5.10.40	04:56
	ESSE	Isaac Kako goal	9.13.67	-	6.10.46	11:41
	ESSE	Peter Wright behind	9.13.67	-	6.11.47	13:29
	ESSE	Lachlan Blakiston goal	9.13.67	-	7.11.53	14:29
	ESSE	Zach Merrett behind	9.13.67	-	7.12.54	17:50
	SYDN	Rushed behind	9.14.68	-	7.12.54	28:03

Links

2025 AFL Season

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