Review

A pleasant surprise.

I found some time to squeeze in a replay and review while away on holidays, and why not after Essendon brought up just its second win of the season in what has been a harrowing year of football to date.

This week saw a much more complete team effort, starting with selection on Thursday night, followed by the coaching on game day, the experienced leaders and, of course, the wave of young talent brought into the club over more recent times. (With undoubtedly a little help from GWS’s inaccuracy, I must add.)

But as always, I won’t just look at the final result, as thrilling as it was at the time. Instead, I’ll concentrate on the key performance indicators that, in all truthfulness, weren’t centred around the win, but rather the improved performance, while still balancing that with the significant improvements yet to be made.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8b4dc1_262fa75e76534f96ac91aa4c4305984f/file

All five 2025 draftees combine in a scoring chain to put Essendon back in front. (Video: Fox Footy / AFL)

Positives.

• Essendon led total clearances 11-4 at quarter time, their biggest differential in two years. At halftime, their +17 advantage was their biggest since 2004.

•Essendon was ahead at quarter time for just the third time this year. Coming into this game, the Bombers trailed at the first change by an average of 14 points. Only once had they held an opposition below 15 points in the opening 20 minutes of game time (against Carlton in Round 13).

• The Bombers led the contested battle by eight at the first change, their second-best performance in this metric behind only the +11 against Carlton five games ago. By halftime, they were +12, also their second best for the year.

• Only once had Essendon applied more than the 20 effective tackles they laid in the opening quarter (21 against Gold Coast in Round 6). By game’s end, their 71 tackles were the second most for the year (72 against Gold Coast) and their fourth most since the start of 2025.

• Helped largely by clearances, Essendon had 12 more possession chains by halftime, easily their biggest differential in any half this year.

• Essendon’s rate of 5.96 opposition possessions per intercept was their best of 2026, improving on the previous mark of 6.0 against Richmond. Their halftime rate of 5.85 ranked second since the start of 2025, behind only the 5.65 against Richmond earlier this year.

• There were 74 stoppages around the ground, easily the most in any Essendon game this year.

• Over 44% of Essendon’s hitouts led directly to clearances, with Nick Bryan converting 15 of his 31 hitouts (48.4%), comfortably the best conversion rate of his 33-game career.

• 26 of Essendon’s 67 points came from front-half stoppages, the most they have scored from this source in any game in 2026.

• Essendon won pre-clearance contested possessions by 12, their equal second-best result of the year alongside Round 1 against Hawthorn, behind only the +28 against West Coast. In the earlier clash against GWS in Round 9, they broke even.

• Between the arcs, Essendon won groundball by 11, the first time they have done so since Round 13 against Carlton and only the second time since Dreamtime.

• The Bombers had eight different goal scorers. Only four times this year have they had more: Round 1 against Hawthorn, Round 4 against the Western Bulldogs, Round 5 against Melbourne and Round 6 against Gold Coast.

• GWS’s 64 points were the fewest Essendon has conceded this year and the 10th fewest over the last four seasons.

• Essendon had 15 contested one-on-one contests in the front half, winning just under a third of them. Their 15 is second only to the 17 they had against GWS in Round 9.

• Dyson Sharp’s nomination for this week’s Rising Star award is rightly warranted after producing his highest-rated game in his short career based on AFL Player Ratings. His second-highest came against GWS in Round 9, where he played only 50% game time.

• Only Clayton Oliver and Sam Durham won more contested possessions than Sharp’s 12, with eight of those coming pre-clearance.

The 19-year-old also led all Essendon players for hardball gets with five, accounting for a quarter of the team’s total.

• In the middle of the ground, Sharp’s nine groundball gets were clearly the most of any player. Seven times he was able to get his hands to the ball first at stoppages, converting six of those into effective clearances.

• No midfielder from either side won more intercept possessions than Sharp’s five.

Negatives.

• Despite Essendon winning 23 clearances to the main break, they could only generate four scoring shots from them, with their 17.38% conversion rate well below the AFL average this season of 24.45%.

• From nine front-half intercepts in the second quarter, the Giants converted four into scores. Luckily for the Bombers, all four were behinds.

• The Giants took eight marks inside 50 from only 12 entries in the second term. By game’s end, they had taken 16 in this zone. No team allows more than Essendon this year.

• Essendon conceded 31 uncontested marks in Q2. GWS averages just over 20 per quarter. It was the 28th time this year the Bombers have allowed 30 or more in a term, the most of any team.

• Essendon held GWS to just six clearances at halftime, with no scores coming from that source. Unfortunately, eight of the Giants’ first nine scoring shots came from Essendon turnovers, with five of those from front-half turnovers. The Giants’ only other scoring shot in that time came from a kick-in.

• The Giants transitioned from defensive 50 to forward 50 on just under one in every four possession chains. The Bombers are ranked 18th in the AFL for denying this.

• By game’s end, Essendon had conceded 16 shots from turnovers. That was the 11th time in 18 games they have allowed 16 or more from this source.

• The Bombers took only 10 intercept marks for the game. This year, they have exceeded the AFL average of 14.5 on only four occasions, with their best performance coming against Melbourne in Round 5 with 21.

• GWS retained possession on inside 50s 54.26% of the time, a rate that would be almost 3% better than the number one ranked team, Fremantle. Only Richmond ranked below Essendon in this metric.

• GWS converted 52.17% of their forward 50 entries into scores. Essendon entered the round ranked 18th in this measurement, conceding an average of 52.01%. Only three times have they held opponents below the AFL average of 45.9%: Round 3 against North Melbourne, Round 5 against Melbourne and Round 12 against West Coast.

Go Bombers!