It was a David and Goliath battle at the Docklands tonight as a young and relatively inexperienced Essendon line-up defeated the reigning premiers of the competition in one of football’s great rivalry matches.
The Bombers displayed courage, composure under pressure and slick run and carry through the corridor as they left nothing to chance and worked to pick apart Hawthorn’s midfield.

With all players contributing, Essendon used the zone to their advantage and maintained solid defensive pressure for the entire match in order to seal a 44-point win.

Essendon’s Patrick Ryder said the team’s forward and midfield pressure was key to the Bombers’ win.

“We were disappointing last week so we wanted to front up and give Hawthorn a good run. The pressure that the boys put on up the field and out of defence to play how they played was great,” he said.

“The pressure around the ground was fantastic. The boys just put their heads down and pushed through for the whole match.”

The Bombers looked dangerous through the midfield, moving the ball quickly and skilfully.

“The speed of our team is one of our strengths so that is something the boys want to do – get the ball and take them on and run it in through the midfield,” Ryder said.

“It just shows we can win games when we do it right.”

Despite coming under scrutiny during the week, Essendon’s young backline showed its doubters they could limit the influence of Hawthorn’s spearheads Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead through solid performances by Cale Hooker and Tayte Pears.

""Cale was fantastic, both him and Tayte,” Ryder said.

“Even though Franklin and Roughead kicked a couple of goals, the effort they put in was fantastic.”

Ryder said Essendon will look to back up their performance as they head into another tough battle against the unbeaten St Kilda next week.

“We will look to focus on maintaining our momentum going into next week,” Ryder said.

“We need to encourage each other on the track so we don’t repeat what happened in Brisbane.

“Tonight we went in as underdogs and came out victorious and that does a lot for our confidence.

“It shows we can beat any team when we are playing our game style and do the things we are taught to do.”