Michael Hurley has booted five goalsto propel Essendon to a convincing 56-point win against the Brisbane Lions atVisy Park.

The Bombers restricted the Lions tojust one goal in the first half, with Hurley easily the most dangerous forwardon the ground in the 16.16 (112) to 8.8 (56) win.

Hurley survived a scare in the thirdquarter when he copped a heavy hit from Pearce Hanley in a marking contest. Helay motionless on the ground before getting to his feet to kick his thirdgoal.

Hanley faces a nervous wait afterbeing reported over the incident and Bombers coach James Hird admitted he hadhis heart in his mouth as his star forward lay on the turf.

""That's the battle in these sorts ofgames,"" Hird said of the incident.

""Michael needed the game time becausehe hasn't played a lot of footy. We had to rule out concussion – which we did –but we were pretty keen for him to come back on if everything was OK just so hecould get that game time.

""I just thought that his intensity atthe ball and his ability to, if he didn't win the contest, he didn't lose it[either]. He was able to have eight or nine shots at goal and as a forward youneed some confidence like that.""

Despite missing out on a NAB Cupmatch after the aborted game against St Kilda in Wangaratta, Hird declared hisplayers on track to be ready for round one after the hit-out.

Essendon skipper Jobe Watson playedhis second game of the pre-season and was all class around the stoppages with 22possessions and he received plenty of help in the form of Brent Stanton (25disposals), David Zaharakis (23) and Courtenay Dempsey (21), who continued hisstellar comeback from a long-term knee injury.

The Dons surged to 29-point lead atthe first break and extended that to 38 at half-time. The Lions enjoyed theirbest quarter of the match in the third period with four goals, but were unableto continue that effort in the final term.

The youthful Lions were outplayed atthe stoppages for long periods, but second-year onballer Jared Polec battledhard throughout to finish with 19 touches and Hanley topped the Lions'possession getters with 22 touches.

""We had no ball flow,"" Lions coachMichael Voss lamented after the match.

""Getting our hands on the footy wasproving a battle.

""We tried a few different things, butat the end of the day it really doesn't matter what you try and do if you can'tget your hands on the footy. It's pretty hard to change anything really.

""To Essendon's credit they werestronger over the footy.""

Billy Longer, the former NorthernKnights ruckman taken at No.8 at the 2011 NAB AFL Draft, was another of the fewpositives for the Lions with some strong work up forward that saw him boot twogoals.

Despite his disappointment at severalaspects of the performance, Voss was happy to have had some weaknesses exposedin time to allow some tinkering ahead of the season opener against Melbourne atthe MCG.

BRISBANE LIONS1.1 1.3 5.78.8 (56)

GOALS
Essendon: Hurley 5,Crameri 2, Zaharakis 2, Melksham 2, Watson, Dempsey, Jetta, McVeigh,Monfries.
Brisbane Lions:Longer 2, Black, Leuenberger, Rich, Merrett, Karnezis, Redden.

BEST
Essendon: Hurley,Watson, Stanton Dempsey, Zaharakis, Hille.
Brisbane Lions: Hanley,Maguire, Polec, Golby, Black, Redden.

INJURIES
Essendon: Nil
Brisbane Lions: Rockliff(migraine)

Reports:Brisbane Lions: Pearce Hanley reported by umpire Steven for charging MichaelHurley in the third quarter.

Umpires: Grun, Jeffery,Steven

Estimatedcrowd: 3500 at Visy Park