Essendon cruised into the semi-finals of the Ansett Cup competition at Waverley last night after demolishing Hawthorn by 49 points in its final group match.

The match looked to be in the balance at half-time but Essendon turned it on in the second half slamming through 12 goals to six to record an easy victory.

And it was the two Johnson's who starred for the winners. Jason Johnson produced a superb display in the mid-field where he combined perfectly with Joe Misiti in a best on ground performance.

Mark Johnson on the other hand did an excellent job on Brownlow Medallist Shane Crawford, blanketing him for most of the night and keeping him goalless.

Essendon started the match in a blaze of glory. Kicking with a strong breeze, the Bombers kicked the first seven goals of the game.

Joe Misiti and Jason Johnson were outstanding in the middle as was Sean Denham who capped off his good work with a goal late in the quarter.

Matthew Lloyd, Adam Ramanauskas, and Dean Rioli did the damage up forward and the Hawks were playing catch up football from that point.

But the Hawks did that very effectively in the second quarter. They kept Essendon to just three points in the second quarter but could manage only 3.4 themselves.

Essendon led by 17 points at the main break but could easily have found themselves behind had Hawthron made the most of their opportunities in front of goal.

The Hawks tall forward line was posing problems for Essendon with Nathan Thompson and Mark Graham getting plenty of the football.

In entertaining third quarter both sides went on a goal kicking spree. The Bombers kicked six goals but they were matched by the Hawks who played good football into a reasonably strong breeze.

However, the Hawks excellent third quarter performance was soured by the loss of Thompson who crashed to the ground after a marking contest and left the ground with a shoulder injury.

But with Hawks coming home with the wind, the match was anything but over and should they have got over the top of the Bombers by 18 points or more, they would have advanced to the semi-finals.

But it was the Bombers who stood firm in the final quarter and actually produced their best football of the match.

Essendon ran riot kicking six goals into the breeze while keeping Hawthorn goalless.

Jason Johnson and Joe Misiti were again the stars while Matthew Lloyd made the most of their good work and finished the match with six goals.

The Hawks couldn't get going up forward. They were obviously missing Thompson and Crawford wasn't having an impact under the watchful eye of Mark Johnson.

The Bombers defence was led admirably by Dean Solomon who created plenty of run from the back half. Dean Wallis also did well for the winners after coming onto the ground midway through the second quarter.

Despite the final margin, the match was much closer than the final margin might indicate - something Kevin Sheedy alluded to after the match.

I wasn't toally pleased, there's some areas we have to get right," Sheedy said.

"I thought we fiddled around with the ball, Matthew Lloyd may as well go an sit on a desert island ... it's no good having talent if they can't get the ball to you.

"We were probably lucky to be in the game at one period (during the second quarter) but their lack og goal-kicking helped us."