ESSENDON coach James Hird has claimed bragging rights in his first battle with long-time mentor Kevin Sheedy, leading the Bombers to a comfortable 66-point victory over Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night.
The Giants showed off their sparkling new Skoda Stadium and again demonstrated their competitiveness and promise for the future, but the Bombers took off in the third term en route to a 18.11 (119) to 7.11 (53) win.
Five talking points: Greater Western Sydney v Essendon
It improves Essendon to 8-1, its best start to a season since 2001, while GWS remains on one win during its first year in the AFL.
Stewart Crameri, Alwyn Davey and Tom Bellchambers kicked three goals apiece for the visitors, while David Zaharakis, Jobe Watson and Nathan Lovett-Murray found plenty of the football.
Following the game, Hird said he was surprised how competitive the Giants were.
"We'd planned for them being good, but even planning for it, they were better than we thought they were around the contest," he said.
"We certainly didn't think that we played the way we wanted to in the first half [but] I'm satisfied that we went out and we won the game."
Adam Treloar, Dom Tyson, Devon Smith and Dylan Shiel held their own for the Giants, with Jeremy Cameron kicking three goals in front of a modest crowd of 11,887.
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Speaking on radio before the match, injured Giant Setanta O'hAilpin said the club was desperate to put in a committed effort for Sheedy, coaching for the first time against the side he led to four flags over 27 years.
"The boys want to put on a great show for him," O'hAilpin said. "He deserves that. This is our mini Grand Final."
And the young side responded early, with only some wayward goalkicking preventing it from truly challenging the high-flying Bombers in the first half.
But 10 goals to five after the main break told a telling tale.
It took less than one minute for the first goal to come at the AFL's newest stadium, via Essendon's Paddy Ryder.
Davey then had the visitors' second on the board three minutes later in an ominous start, but the Giants responded impressively, pinning the ball in their forward half for much of the next 20 minutes.
GWS had four shots on goal, but all were from outside 50m and all sailed wide before Smith's late miss from 40m on an angle gave them five behinds for the first quarter.
The Giants were queuing up to make history, but their excitement appeared to get the better of them as they continued to spray a succession of goal-scoring opportunities as the crowd's impatience increased.
The moment finally came at the 19-minute mark, with Shiel swooping on a loose ball and running into an open goal to release the intense pressure building up among the home fans.
At half-time GWS had managed 11 scoring shots to nine, but only returned 2.9 to Essendon's impressive 8.1.
Kevin Sheedy said: "I thought that for a first half, if we had had some goal power and kicked accurately … we worked really hard to get back into the game.
"We fought for contested balls and we were pretty good. Obviously the score doesn’t show it that way because they kicked very, very straight.
"But our players in the end need to be better at goal scoring."
In the end it was little surprise the floodgates opened after the main break as the Bombers flexed their muscles ... but the Giants received some more valuable AFL education.
Greater Western Sydney 0.5 2.9 4.11 7.11 (53)
Essendon 3.1 8.1 13.8 18.11 (119)
GOALS
Greater Western Sydney: Cameron 3, Shiel, Treloar, Giles, McDonald
Essendon: Crameri 3, Davey 3, Bellchambers 3, Ryder 2, Monfries 2, Zaharakis, Watson, Melksham, Hurley, Colyer
BEST
Greater Western Sydney: Treloar, Tyson, Kennedy, Cameron, Power, Shiel
Essendon: Dyson, Crameri, Lovett-Murray, Dempsey, Zaharakis, Davey
INJURIES
Greater Western Sydney: Folau (hamstring) replaced in selected side by Townsend
Essendon: Hardingham (calf) replaced in selected side by Slattery
SUBSTITUTES
Greater Western Sydney: Sam Darley replaced Adam Kennedy at three-quarter time
Essendon: Henry Slattery replaced Ricky Dyson at three-quarter time
Reports: Nil
Umpires: McBurney, Ryan, Hosking
Official crowd: 11,887 at Skoda Stadium
James Dampney covers Sydney AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs
