Essendon VFL Captain Nick O’Brien says the side has shown they can match it with the best throughout their first eight games of the season.

The Bombers are in sixth position on the ladder and face eighth placed Footscray this Friday night.

Nearing the half way point of the season, the Dons have four wins in the bank – all of which have come against sides outside the top eight.

“Naturally, we would’ve liked to have won a couple of those games earlier in the season but I think we’ve set a good platform in terms of the football that we want to play,” O’Brien said.

“Our best is among the top end of the competition.

“Our contest work around the footy has really improved. Our midfield has been really good and our defenders have been winning their fair share of contests.

“It has been our strength, now it’s just about getting a little bit more polished.”

The Bombers have had an average winning margin of 67 points, in comparison to only an 18 point average losing margin.

“Throughout games we’ve had really good quarters and then we’ve also had some patches where we’ve been easy to score against or we’ve turned the ball over a little too much,” he said.

“If we can be more consistent throughout games it will stop teams being able to beat us.

“Early in the season we were having trouble with our execution in front of goals and we also had some issues with converting our inside 50s into scores.”

O’Brien said he has been impressed by the performances of VFL listed duo Nick Hind and Alex Boyse.

Both were part of the Victorian training squad last month after playing predominantly at local level last season.

Boyse has dominated in the forward line, booting 16 goals for the Bombers to lead the Club goal kicking.

O’Brien also said the Bombers have been aided by the contributions from the recent draftees.

Kobe Mutch and Dylan Clarke have been standouts through the midfield.

At 18 years of age Clarke has averaged 21 disposals, five marks and four tackles, and 19 year old Mutch has averaged 20 disposals and five marks.

Sam Draper has averaged 26 hit outs in his last four games. He has been named in the best three times this season.

“Our first year players from the AFL list – Kobe Mutch, Dylan Clarke and Sam Draper in the last couple of weeks have been fantastic.”

 “Draper in the ruck is really starting to play some consistent hard footy, which is good.”