Essendon have crashed back to earth and crashed from 4th to 9th on the AFL ladder after they were given ‘a football lesson’ at the hands of the undefeated Geelong on Sunday afternoon at Jihad Stadium in AFL Round 10.

After the Bombers kicked the opening goal of the game via the boot of Jay Neagle, the Cats then set upon demolishing the young Bombers and in the end ran away 64 point winners 20.14 (134) to 11.4 (70) and showed that the Bombers still have a long long long way to go before being able to match it with the AFL’s elite.

The Bombers, beaten by 99 points at the same venue when the sides last met in 2008, hopes were high that the Bombers would make more of a contest this time around, however after Neagle’s opening goal via a Jason Winderlich pass and a competitive opening 10 minutes, the Cats clicked into gear slamming on the next six goals to lead by 33 points at quarter-time and effectively put a dampener on the contest.

Ricky Dyson added the Bombers second of the match to start the second quarter, but the Cat machine then rolled on with the next five goals of the game and the match was already over. The margin blew out to 65 points when Geelong forward Cameron Mooney nabbed his second for the day before Neagle’s reduced the margin to an even 10 goals at half-time with his second of the Bombers only three first half goals.

Things got even uglier as the second half began with only Heath Hocking’s two goals registering on the scoreboard for the Bombers as Cat forward Steven Johnson nabbed his sixth for the day before the ¾ time break and the Cats had an imposing 84 point break and it looked like a triple figure drubbing was all but assured for the Bombers.

Whether the Cats took the pedal off the floor and slackened off a bit in the final term will never be known, but the Bombers battled away to the final siren to reduce the ¾ time margin of 84 down to 64 at the final siren with a six goal to three final term with Neagle finishing with a three goal haul.

Bachar Houli finished with a career high 31 possessions, while Ricky Dyson, Cale Hooker, Patrick Ryder and Andrew Lovett were the best of a bad lot.

“You just can’t expect to win against quality opposition when you start like that. I guess we’re starting slowly, but they’re starting fast, and full credit to Geelong they played some excellent football in that first quarter.” Essendon coach Matthew Knights said after the game. “The other lesson we learned was that it was quite apparent that when Geelong nailed us in tackles they did a hatchet job on us and we couldn’t get any ball moving. When we tackled Geelong with our younger bodies they were able to get … handballs clear and put the ball into space.”

“Part of our plan before the game was that we felt if we were around the action at half-time and close enough we gave ourselves a good chance of running out the game,” Knights added. 

“We’ve been running to the line really well in games and finishing hard, but it didn’t eventuate. We were smoked at half-time and they were a long way ahead. 

“I guess it could have blown out to 100 or 120 [points] – I think last year it did – so it was good to pull it back and at least win the last quarter.”

The Bombers have a week to lick their wounds, before tackling Adelaide at Jihad Stadium next Sunday afternoon in AFL Round 11 and look to return to the AFL Top 8.