ESSENDON proved last year it could score, but it entered this season hoping to stop other sides from doing the same. It has taken some time, but the Bombers are finally showing their defensive prowess.
The club was one of the highest scoring sides in 2017, averaging 95 points a game. But it also conceded on average 92 points, something coach John Worsfold and his team spent much of the summer trying to address.
The early signs weren't good. In the first eight rounds, as Essendon slumped to 2-6, the Bombers conceded on average 96 points against. They had gone backwards while also losing their own ability to hit the scoreboard.
Since then, the Bombers have found their defensive mojo and rediscovered their attacking one.
From round 9-19, Essendon is ranked third in the competition for the fewest points conceded (behind Port Adelaide and Hawthorn). The Bombers have let through, on average, just 71 points a game and conceded 100 points only twice.
In their past seven games, in which time the Bombers have lost only once as they make a late run for the finals, they have averaged just 69 points against. It is a tightening of the screws that has given Essendon a chance at returning to the top-eight despite their horror start to the season.
Worsfold said after last week's comprehensive win over Sydney that there were a number of factors to the better defensive efforts of the past three months.
"We were rusty early and there were new parts to our game and [Adam] Saad was new back there," he said.
"It's really been just believing what we were working towards and understanding it would come if we kept working towards it, rather than dropping everything and changing stuff and thinking, 'Let's take the easy option and do something different and that will keep everyone happy'.
"That wouldn't have necessarily made us better."
The personnel in the backline has made a difference. Saad, fresh from Gold Coast earlier in the season, has found the right balance between his breathtaking run and when to lock down, while key cog Michael Hurley has been deployed in more shutdown roles than the free-wheeling ones he was given earlier in the season.
It has also been no coincidence that the All Australian backman Cale Hooker has spent most of his time as a defender since round eight, having started the season close to goal after showing his exploits there last season.
Hooker's aerial exploits, ability to close down key forwards and start attacking chains has been central to Essendon's better balance in the past 10 weeks.
Hawthorn, having cut through the Bombers in round seven to post a comfortable win, may find it a harder task when the clubs meet at the MCG on Saturday with their finals hopes on the line.
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