Essendon fell to Footscray by 10 points in a seesawing contest at Whitten Oval on Saturday to record its only loss in the three practice matches.

After trailing by 31 points at three-quarter time, the Bombers hit the ground running in the last with a bombardment on the goals that brought the margin to within nine points with four minutes to go.

Ultimately, Dan Jordan’s side was left to rue a wasteful accruement of 4.9 in the final quarter in their 14.7 (91) to 11.15 (81) loss.

AFL-listed ruckman Shaun McKernan showed incredible strength as he performed all day in the air while pushing into the forward line to create an option.

Jayden Laverde was arguably Essendon’s most consistently dangerous forward across the four quarters, while Brandon Zerk-Thatcher made a successful return to the side as he switched between defence and attack.

Bombers fans should also be excited by the efforts of 2017 draft pick Matt Guelfi as the 20-year old Western Australian showed agility at close quarters as an inside midfielder.

But it was his show-stopping goal on the run in the last quarter – when he intercepted a Footscray foray with a desperate smother on centre wing and got on the end of a chain of handballs to slot the major from just inside 50 – that ignited his side and showed a glimpse of a player ready to crack AFL.

For the VFL Bombers, Matt Darby took a significant scalp with the nullification of star Footscray forward Tom Boyd, while Danny Younan’s forward pressure was electric in a first half that often saw Essendon struggling to play its own brand against the Bulldogs’ overlapping run.

A week after toiling through the mud and rain against Werribee, Jordan says it is a blessing in disguise that his side had the chance to play in perfect sunshine at Whitten Oval.

“It’s good to get a breadth of experience in the pre-season because you’re going to come up against all sorts of conditions … we were back playing five rotations today and it was a pretty hot day and pretty quick footy,” Jordan said post-match.

“We were pretty slow defensively in the first half and we gave them a lot of outside ball,” admitted Jordan.

“The pleasing thing was that we finished off the game in a manner that we’d like and hopefully take some momentum into next week…we know that when we do pull the trigger and want to carry it in we can have some scoring opportunities.”

Essendon will play its season-opening clash against Frankston at Skybus Stadium at 2pm this Saturday.