Essendon pulled off a major upset at Jihad Stadium on Friday night embarrassing reigning AFL Premier Hawthorn with a 44 point victory to begin AFL Round 7. Down by a point at half-time, the Bombers piled on the goals in the second half with 11 goals to four to run out 17.14 (116) to 10.12 (72) winners in front of a sellout crowd of 50,475.

Brent Stanton finished with a career high 36 possessions to be judged best afield, while skipper Matthew Lloyd, Alwyn Davey, Jason Winderlich, Andrew Lovett and Angus Monfries were amongst the Bombers best in a “real team effort”.

Going into the match rank outsiders, the Bombers had the better of the opening term ending with a 12 point lead at the first change. But they were aided by Hawthorn’s inaccuracy – a 1.8 return for the quarter compared to the Bombers more accurate 4.2. Angus Monfries dominated 2008 Norm Smith Medalist Luke Hodge, with four marks and a goal forcing the Hawks to move Hodge up the ground. Stanton and Bachar Houli were prominent in the middle while ruckman Patrick Ryder provided the highlight with a screaming mark over Hawk skipper Sam Mitchell.

Goals to Jarryd Roughead, Lance Franklin and Mark Williams saw the Bombers lead eliminated and it looked like the match was going to go to the expected script. Goals to Monfries and Nathan Lovett-Murray restored the Bomber lead before Franklin added his second for the term, after playing-on from 55 metres to give the Hawks a one-point lead heading into the main break.

The Bombers continued on with their game plan of full-on, play on at all costs through the corridor type football in the third term and their plan began to break down the Premier’s “vaunted zone”. Sam Lonergan and Heath Hocking gave the Bombers back the lead, before skipper Matthew Lloyd extended the Bombers lead to 11 after an assist from Monfries. Franklin chipped in with two goals for the term to keep the Hawks in touch, but when young Bomber ruckan Tom Bellchambers marked and goaled at the 26-minute mark, the Bombers held a game high 17 point lead heading into the final term after a six goal to three term.

Lloyd extended the Bombers lead with the opening goal of the final term, Franklin kept the match alive a little longer with his fifth for the match, but that would be the Hawks only contribution on the scoreboard for the remainder of the term as the Bombers kicked the remaining four goals of the game to break the match apart and run out comfortable winners and record another “upset” win for the season.

With the win, Essendon jumped to a 4-3 record after seven rounds and back in the AFL Top 8.

“It’s great to get a win at any time with a young group, and we’ve now had four this year and they’re all pretty vital,” Essendon coach Matthew Knights said after the game. “[But] I guess to beat the reigning premiers, with a team that I think we had maybe 11 guys [with] 25 games and under, I just thought it was a superb team effort, really. We saw a lot of team-orientated football tonight and just the resilience of the group [was great] tonight, to bounce back after we were really towelled up quite significantly last week.”

The Bombers face another tough assignment next week with a matchup against highflying St Kilda and Knights said his team couldn’t afford to lose focus or drop off in intensity.

“We’re a young team that’s improving but we have great performances but then we have games where we’re not so crash hot,” he added. “Hopefully playing St Kilda next game… will be a bit of an inspiration for us for our guys to try to rise again.”