The Western Bulldogs are back on the winners list after they held off a later Bomber charge to run out 21-point winners in front of 40,499 fans at Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Dogs were in control of the game all day, and if not for some inaccurate kicking might have sowed the game up some time during the third quarter.  But the Dons kept coming and could have been within nine-points with five minutes remaining if not for an ill-advised Joe Daniher hand-pass deep in Bomber territory that let the Dogs off the hook.

Within a minute, Toby McLean (Two goals, 25 disposals) had taken three bounces and kicked the sealer; injecting some life back into the Bulldogs season with the Swans at Eithad Stadium to come next Saturday.

The Dogs had winners all over the ground with Lachie Hunter (35 disposals, 13 marks and a goal), Luke Dahlhaus (31 disposals, 24 of them handballs), Jack Macrae (30 disposals, seven marks, five tackles) all prolific, and defender Bailey Williams chipping in with a 26 touch, 12 mark performance, both career highs.

After two straight losses, the Dogs would have been keen to open the game with some spark, and that’s exactly what they did, dominating the opening stanza in all areas other than the scoreboard, where there were nine behinds between opening majors.

But innacurracy aside, the Dogs were back to their best pressure-packed best, with Tory Dickson’s chase-down of Connor McKenna in the second quarter worth the price of admission alone, and the Dogs defenders constant harassment of the Bomber ball-carriers leading to 74 turnovers, and a mountain of easy possesions.

Spending most of the game forward, Marcus Bontempelli had one of the most influential 16-possession games you’ll ever see, kicking 3.3 and adding five-inside 50s, and his left-foot dribble goal from the tightest of angles is a certain Coats Hire Goal of the Year contender.

Mitch Wallis added some grunt into the Dogs’ midfield on his return, Caleb Daniel and Matthew Suckling saw plenty of the football and Mitch Honeychurch was a key contributor, while youngsters Ed Richards, Aaron Naughton and Tim English were bright spots in their second,third and fifth games respectively. 

Western Bulldogs      3.9.  8.10  11.16  14.20    (104)

Essendon                  3.2.  6.6     9.7.     12.11   (83)     

Goals: Bontempelli 3, McLean, Dale, Dunkley 2, Gowers, Hunter, Wallis, Johannisen, Williams

Best: Hunter, McLean, Macrae, Dahlhaus, Daniel, Bontempelli