After booting the opening three goals of the game, Essendon showed that they were fired up and here to play tonight. The team was hard at it from the opening bounce and sprinted out to a 40-point lead at the first change. David Hille dominated at stoppages and up forward. The ruckman had eight hit-outs for the term and finished with three goals.
Scott Lucas was also busy up forward and contributed two majors in the first quarter. In his fourth game of senior footy, Jobe Watson showed no signs of his inexperience. The 19-year-old kicked a goal within the first 90 seconds of the opening bounce and then followed up with his second at the 17-minute mark.
The Bombers' opening quarter score (56 points) was the highest score for a quarter in the history of Essendon v Collingwood matches. There was no doubt that Essendon had the game by the throat at the first change and looked set to go on with it in the second term.
Collingwood had other ideas and lifted after quarter time. They started to find space and slowed down Essendon's midfield run. Collingwood might have outscored Essendon by five points in the second term, but the highlight of the quarter belonged to Hird. Late in the term the skipper side stepped three Collingwood players and put the ball on this boot from 35 metres out to snap Essendon's 11th goal and give his side a 35-point lead at the main change.
Just when Essendon seemed on track to record their 11th victory of the season, Collingwood would fightback. Essendon's lead pushed out to 43-points midway through the third term, but the Pies continued to persist. Four straight goals late in the term brought Collingwood within four goals at the final change and gave them a sniff at victory.
Essendon has had a tendancy of close finishes this season and the trend looked set to continue early in the final quarter. Brodie Holland booted the opening goal for Collingwood and it lifted his team. Essendon couldn't buy and goal and scored the next four behinds. Justin Murphy finally steadied Essendon's ship at the 12 minute mark when he goaled to give the Bombers breathing space.
When Collingwood scored the next two goals, the game was in the balance. Essendon had let a 43-point lead disintegrate to just 15-points. It looked like Collingwood was going to cause a boil over. Essendon supporters had their hearts in their mouth with a finals' berth in jeopardy.
With just three minutes to go, Essendon found something special. Youngster Ricky Dyson snapped on his left foot from the pocket 20 metres out to give Essendon a 22-point lead. Then the man of the moment - James Hird - dug deep and finished with two late goals. Hird's final goal was a long bomb from 70m out. The skipper's third and final goal got Essendon across the line by 34-points.
