Essendon’s 2010 AFL Season is over and more than likely the coaching career of Bomber coach Matthew Knights.

The Bombers racked up their 10th loss in the past 12 games with a 29 point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Jihad Stadium on Saturday night.

In a fizzer of a contest, the Bulldogs jumped the Bombers with a six goal to two first term and that was enough to set-up a 17.5 (107) to 11.12 (78) win and condemn the Bombers to a 14th placed finish in 2010.

Paddy Ryder got the Bombers up and running early on with the first two goals of the game, but as Bomber fans have seen way too many times during 2010, that was just the spark for another uncontested opposition goalslaught with the Bulldogs piling on the next six goals in a row to head into quarter time with a handy 22 point lead.

The second quarter was a much more even contest with both sides trading goals – but the Dogs margin however extended to an even five goals at the half time break after Travis Colyer snapped a goal near the half time siren.

The third term pretty much mirrored the second. With a much more competitive Bomber outfit trying their best to battle their way into the game, but the Bulldogs withstood all Bomber challenges but the margin was out of an insurmountable 35 points with one quarter to play.

The final term was a fizzer with both sides content to run out the clock. The Bombers wasted opportunities to tighten the margin on the scoreboard finishing the term with 2.6 while the Dogs themselves could only managed 2.0 of their own which saw the margin back to 29 points and apart from the Bulldogs six goal first quarter run ended up an even contest from that point on.

Leroy Jetta, Ben Howlett and David Myers were the Bombers best. Jetta finished with 31 disposals, Howlett 25 while Myers had his best game in his short career with 29 touches playing off the half-back flank. Ruckman David Hille chipped in with 19 touches and 21 hit outs, with Ryder, Colyer and Heath Hocking finishing with two goals each.

“We started well and we had a couple of shots early in the game where we could have got to three goals to zip … then the Bulldogs obviously held sway for a fair proportion of the game,” Knights said after the game.

“They were just a lot more polished when they went forward. I thought their forward entries were really crisp and precise and they got good reward for their effort going inside 50 whereas I didn’t believe we got the reward going inside 50 we probably deserved.”

With Knights job now under the pump, he declared 2010 as a failure.

“The aim of the Essendon Football Club is to play finals each and every year, so we haven’t achieved that so that’s a failure on that level – no question about that,” Knights added. “But I’m sure our supporters will keep backing us and keep believing in this young group. There’s no easy way to the top, and the teams that are on the top have proved that, that you do take time to get up there and that’s what we’ve got to keep working at.”

Essendon now have 6 months to ponder life. Whether Knights will be the one doing the pondering is expected to be decided within 72 hours.