After one win in the first five rounds, the Bombers were in turmoil and talk of a bottom four finish was all the rage, but five rounds later the Bombers have moved into the AFL Top 8 for the first time this season and square their ledger at 5-5 after 10 rounds following a 15.9 (99) to 14.6 (90) victory over the Western Bulldogs at Jihad Stadium on Friday night in AFL Round 10.

The Bombed led from start to finish and produced a 5.1 to nothing burst to open the second half to build a commanding 6 goal lead before the Bulldogs kicked four goals in time-on of the final quarter to cut the margin to single figures and produce a closer result than most expected 15 minutes earlier.

Brent Stanton (32 disposals), Jason Winderlich (27 touches), Jobe Watson (25) and Leroy Jetta (25) racked up numerous possessions while ruckman Paddy Ryder starred with 14 touches, 22 hitouts and eight tackles.

The tone of the match was set in the first term with the Bombers opening the match with the first three goals to open up a handy break, before the Bulldogs hit back in the second half of the term with three goals of their own to level the scores at 3.2 (20) a piece at the first break.

Same thing happened to begin the second quarter with the Bombers opening up a break with four of the first five goals of the second term before the Bulldogs via ruckman Ben Hudson and forward Barry Hall goaled nearing half time to reduce the margin to seven points at the main break.

The Bombers came out blazing to begin the second half, kicking 5.1 to nothing in the first 22 minutes of the third term, highlighted by strong tackling, particularly efforts by David Myers and Nathan Lovett-Murray that resulted in Bomber goals. When Leroy Jetta goaled at the 22 minute mark of the third term, the Bombers had a 38 point lead and the match looked over. However, like in the first and second terms, the Bulldogs finished the quarter the stronger and goals to Lindsay Gilbee and Ryan Griffin saw the margin back to 26 points going into the final term.

Nathan Lovett-Murray hammered home the first goal of the final term and when Scott Gumbleton goaled from 25 metres out the margin was out to 37 and even with the Bulldogs kicking six of the last seven goals, it was not enough to stop the Bombers from registering their first victory over the Bulldogs since 2005.

“The Bulldogs have been the least-tackled team in the league, averaging only 62 tackles against so we wanted to get at them more than that. I think we got 75 tackles, which is a credit to the playing group to embrace that philosophy tonight.” Essendon coach Matthew Knights said after the game.

“We’re proud that, yes, we are ranked No.1 in tackling for a team that people perceive is not that way. They can keep saying that if they like, as long as we know what we want to achieve internally and the way we’re going about our footy.”

“The reality is we’re still 5-5, we’re only just evening up the ledger so we’ve achieved nothing in this season to this point, so there’s still much work to be done.”

The Bombers will try to move to 6-5 at the midway point of the season with a trip up to Sydney against the Swans at the MCG in AFL Round 11.