Essendon’s last month of football shows the confidence within the group is growing according to Bombers champion Scott Lucas.

The Dons have won two and lost two from their last four games, all against sides vying for spot in the top four. 

“It really has been a strong month of football to beat two top four teams and be really competitive against the others,” Lucas said.

“It just shows that when they’re playing at their best they’re very good.

“What is leads you to think is there has been some lost opportunities … there has been a couple of games when the boys should have done better and would be disappointed that they didn’t win those games.

“It doesn’t get any easier because it’s an even competition but what they have shown is they’re starting to build some confidence within the group.

“Coming into the season they were a real unknown but they’ve shown they can match is with some really strong teams.”

Essendon pushed ladder leader GWS all the way last Saturday, but the class of the Giants came to the fore and they were able to do enough to get the win.

“They [Essendon] played some pretty good football at times throughout that game,” Lucas said.

“Their game in a sense never fully came together.

“Early on their pressure was good and they were forcing turnovers and then scoring on the back of that.

“Later on in the game I thought their transition was very good.

“But what we saw more than anything was just how good the Giants are.

“They’ve just got match winners everywhere, it was a real strong challenge for the Bombers but they put in a really strong performance.”

The Bombers scored more than 100 points for the sixth time this year, despite Joe Daniher being held to one goal. 

Josh Green (three goals), Cale Hooker (two), Orazio Fantasia (two) and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (two) helped the side kick 15 goals from 45 inside 50s.

“I thought the tall forwards worked particularly well together,” Lucas said.

“They were able to get really good separation, so they had areas of the ground they could work one on one. 

“The small forwards also had their opportunities.

“There was a good contribution but more broadly there needs to be more entries.”