{"id":53491,"date":"2021-04-03T08:52:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T08:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=53491"},"modified":"2021-04-03T18:04:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T18:04:21","slug":"stringer-lauds-dons-doctors-after-stunning-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=53491","title":{"rendered":"Stringer lauds Dons doctors after stunning return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jake Stringer<\/a> has made an instant impact on his return to Essendon's line-up, kicking four goals in a ruthless demolition job of St Kilda.<\/p>\n

After being held out of the team for the first two weeks due to his recovery from a pre-season Achilles issue<\/a>, Stringer kicked four first-half goals in the 22. 11. (143) to 9. 14. (68) win<\/a> at Marvel Stadium.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>MORE: <\/strong>Gresham suffers Achilles injury in horror Saints outing<\/a><\/p>\n

The veteran forward began proceedings by kicking the first goal of the afternoon as Essendon led from siren to siren, dealing St Kilda's season a devastating blow.<\/p>\n

Stringer, who missed the majority of last season with a syndesmosis injury, paid credit to the Essendon fitness staff, who had forced him to get his match fitness through the VFL.<\/p>\n

"The boys have been under the pump in the last two weeks and obviously I've been back in the VFL getting some match fitness," he told Fox Footy after the win.<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/p>\n

"I just wanted to come in and try and make an impact straight away. Credit to the boys, we're a young group and they stuck fat through the whole two weeks and they really deserved this one.<\/p>\n

"It's a credit to the fitness staff and the coaching group. I was itching at the bit and I wanted to play Round One and they said, 'No, we want you to get your match fitness' where previously they would have rolled me out.<\/p>\n

"They held me back and held me back and obviously I was ready to go today. I've leaned down a bit, about seven kilos, so I must have been carrying a few last year.<\/p>\n

"It's all part of developing and growing and I'm just enjoying my footy at the minute."<\/p>\n

\"Essendon<\/p>\n

Stringer's inclusion seemed to spark Essendon's faltering forward line, with the score of 143 its largest since the 2013 season. The 75-point win was Essendon's biggest since the 2014 season and its biggest winning margin against St Kilda since Round 8, 2002.<\/p>\n

Stringer was one of 10 individual goal-kickers for the Bombers, with veteran Cale Hooker leading the pack with five goals, while Will Snelling, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Alec Waterman and Harrison Jones also kicking multiple goals.<\/p>\n

With the likes of Dyson Heppell, Dylan Shiel and Jye Caldwell all out, Darcy Parish gathered a career-best 34 disposals, while stand-in skipper Zach Merrett added 34 of his own.<\/p>\n

Essendon will hope to carry on its momentum when it travels to Sydney to take on the high-flying Swans in Round Four, while St Kilda hosts the West Coast Eagles.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jake Stringer has made an instant impact on his return to Essendon's line-up, kicking four goals in a ruthless demolition job of St Kilda. After […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53493,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53491\/revisions\/53493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}