Essendon assistant coach Gary O’Donnell believes Essendon’s ability to produce a high quality defensive game can prevent Friday night’s blockbuster against the Western Bulldogs from turning into a shootout.

O’Donnell conceded that the Etihad surface had a habit of producing high-scoring games but says the team which is best able to negate the opposition’s attacking options is likely to claim the four points.

“We’re looking at playing the defensive side of our game at a standard that is going to stop them from scoring a high score,” he said.

“It’s a nice quick deck at Etihad Stadium - the ball travels from one end of the ground pretty quickly and both teams have got fairly potent goal attacking force so you’d expect plenty of goals  but the team that is able to lock the other team down for a longer period of time will win.

“Last year we were known as a team who scored pretty freely – from where we finished on the ladder – we probably didn’t have our defence right.  This year we still have a long way to go but it is still an improvement on last year and we’re about mid-field as far as defence goes.  To make finals it’s got to improve another 20-30% for the next seven games, and we’ve got to do that.”

To watch today's media conference on Bomber.tv click here.
Essendon strengthened their hopes of playing finals football last week with a win on the road against Sydney putting them in eighth spot on the ladder.

However despite showing a healthy 8-7 win/loss record, O’Donnell said the Bombers still have a long way to go to earn their right to taste the September action this season.

“We’re in the midst of developing this side to have sustained success over a long period of time,” O’Donnell said. 
""You go into the season every year trying to make the finals and if we do that we’ll be very pleased, because we’ve got a young group that will get some good experience there.

“Once you make finals you never know what is going to happen. I’ve played in teams that have just fallen into finals and have done very well in September, but the main thing is that you’ve got to earn your right, you earn what you deserve in this life, and we’ve still got to earn it in the next seven games.

“There is a little bit of 1993 in this team, three or four old stagers, some good mid-rangers and a lot of young guys who are still learning their craft.  There are a lot of comparisons, but there is still a long way to go. 

“In that year, we finished on top of the ladder.  This year, if we’re good enough to make the finals, we’re going to be in the bottom part of the eight.  It’s a whole different scenario.  We’ve got to earn the right and we still haven’t done that yet.”