Rohan Connolly

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.

AFL

Lions' pride stuns Dons

Rohan Connolly Two statistics best sum up Brisbane's stunning 10-point upset of Essendon.

AFL

Essendon stymies Pies attack

Jobe Watson

Rohan Connolly Bombers held sway in general play and on the scoreboard the entire afternoon, but that didn't necessarily make their eventual 46-point win a comfortable exercise until the final 10 minutes.

Dons hand out a lesson

Jobe Watson and Clinton Jones

Rohan Connolly St Kilda has regularly found itself short of sufficient height and strength in recent times.

Ruthless Bombers

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 06:  Jobe Watson of the Bombers runs with the ball away from Jimmy Toumpas of the Demons during the round two AFL match between the Essendon Bombers and the Melbourne Demons at Melbourne Cricket Ground on April 6, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia.  (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

Rohan Connolly Two passages of play a couple of minutes apart said all that needed to be said about Melbourne and Essendon.

AFL

Measuring up the midfield

Rohan-Connolly-sport-dinks

Rohan Connolly The jury is still out on whether quality or quantity is the key to victory.

Goddard is newbie in name only

New beginning: Club chief executive Ian Robson shows Essendon's recruits the new training centre at Tullamarine.

Rohan Connolly Brendon Goddard is proving a godsend for Essendon's midfield, and its leadership.

Sorry Jack, but three aces trumped you

Richmond's Jack Riewoldt

Rohan Connolly It goes without saying that you can't please everyone when picking an All-Australian team, but generally you'll find reasonable consensus about at least 75 per cent of those selected.

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Tough days for Blues and Dons

On the way back: Essendon's David Zaharakis (left) returns for the Bombers against Carlton.

Rohan Connolly There's always something on the line when Essendon takes on Carlton.

Rohan Connolly

Defeated Bombers can take heart

Rohan Connolly sport dinkus

Rohan Connolly Missed it by that much will be the popular reaction to Essendon's nail-biting loss in Adelaide.

Football

Wayward Dons blow it

Tight contest: Sydney's Lewis Roberts-Tomson tackles Essendon's Heath Hocking last night.

Rohan Connolly Sydney's thrilling four-point win over Essendon last night threw up all sorts of bizarre numbers. The bottom line, though, was that once again these two teams served up a blinder.

Rohan Connolly

Ratten runs hot, Hird goes cold

James Hird, Stephen Milne and Nick Riewoldt.

Rohan Connolly Do coaches make teams or teams make coaches? It's a perennial football question, one at times that is almost impossible to answer, but one worth pondering again after two crucial and surprising...

Comments 71

Big Ben times run right

Rohan Connolly ESSENDON coach James Hird was asked on radio this week about the importance of the lesser lights to a team's continued improvement.

Howlett puts name in lights

Rohan Connolly sport dinkus

Rohan Connolly Essendon coach James Hird, interviewed on SEN the other day, was asked a question about the importance of the lesser lights to a team's continued improvement.

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Football

Bombers have sights on better midfield depth

Essendons coach Heath Hocking at training.8 July 2011.Picture Sebastian Costanzo. The Age.

Rohan Connolly It's no great secret Essendon needs to bolster both the quality and depth of its midfield.

AFL

Fiasco won't hurt our season, Hocking says

Rohan Connolly Essendon midfielder Heath Hocking is confident last week's travel fiasco and the cancellation of an important NAB Cup hitout with St Kilda won't leave the Bombers behind the rest of the pack in their...

Hird lauds Bombers' pre-season where players gave 'everything'

Jobe Watson

Rohan Connolly Determination to prove critics wrong will be key focus of Essendon's 2012 campaign.

Bombers bounce Roos

Mixed emotions: Essendon players celebrate after Roo Hamish McIntosh missed an after-siren goal attempt.

Rohan Connolly Only a brave pundit would have predicted result would be known only after final siren.

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Gutsy Dons graft a win

Partick Ryder

Rohan Connolly In the end, you had to call it a decent win by Essendon, getting home by 25 points after looking set to be overrun midway through the final term with only one fit player left on the bench, and Port...

Out of the Blue

Catch me if you can: Alwyn Davey leads Carlton's Nick Duigan a merry chase in the Bombers' upset win. Davey chipped in with three goals.

Rohan Connolly Carlton goes down to Essendon in one of those results that confounds all logic and form.

In-form Stanton is good to go again

Brent Stanton

Rohan Connolly Brett Stanton is arguably best placed to play second game within five days.

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