One aspect of Essendon's game that goes largely unheralded is its defensive skills. It's all very well to look sensational when you have the ball but it is often the pressure you put on other side's when they have the ball that will determine the outcome of a match. AFL / VFL history has been littered with great defensive sides that have won premierships - the West Coast Eagles of the early 1990s was one such side. Conversely, sides such as Geelong in the late 80s and early 90s that were goal-scoring machines, could not win a premiership. The barometer for defensive pressure is the tackle count and the Bombers showed once again last Friday night against Adelaide that they do it pretty well.

The tackle count can be deceiving. A side may simply lay more tackles than its opposition because it spends the entire match chasing the football. But that certainly wasn't the case at Colonial Stadium last Friday night. The Bombers had 22 more possessions than the Crows during the course of the game yet laid a staggering 23 more tackles - it is a telling figure.

""There is no doubt we tackled very well on Friday night,"" Essendon assistant coach Mark Harvey said today. ""The best part about our tackling in general is that it results in turnovers. The ball is usually spilt and because we get numbers at the contest we can turn it over.""

Harvey said it is broken tackles that can really hurt sides. ""It would be an interesting statistic to see how many broken tackles we have,"" Harvey said. ""If you tackle an opponent you have to make it count and generally I don't think our broken tackle count would be that high. When opposition sides break tackles a loose man is created and it can hurt you.""

Harvey said the Bombers aim to lay 60 tackles a game. ""Whether or not you reach that figure can depend on the opposition and the nature of the game,"" Harvey said. ""Whether we dominate an opposition or they dominate us - it can have an impact on how many tackles you lay.""

So why do the Bombers tackle so well? ""Tackling itself isn't something we do a lot of at training but we are still pretty physical. We are also pretty fit,"" Harvey said. ""We generally use tackle bags in training rather than man-on-man stuff. With the lists so small you can't afford to do too much man-on-man tackling practice. It increases the risk of injury and you just can't afford that.""