Injury blows sour Bulldogs' win over battling Bombers

The Western Bulldogs have dealt beleagured Essendon yet another defeat but will sweat on injuries to star midfielder Ed Richards, ruckman Tim English and livewire Arty Jones ahead of a blockbuster clash with Hawthorn.

Essendon appeared destined for a disastrous thrashing after kicking just one goal in a listless opening half, but responded after halftime to salvage a more respectable end score of 14.15 (99) to 9.11 (65) against the AFL's only unbeaten side.

The Bombers equalled the club record of 17 consecutive defeats, set when Essendon used top-up players in 2016 amid their supplements saga.

And the fightback won't relieve the pressure on the team and their coach Brad Scott.

English (knee) and Jones (hamstring) limped off in the third quarter, just six days out from the Bulldogs' Gather Round clash with the Hawks at Adelaide Oval.

Gun midfielder Richards (left knee soreness) withdrew barely half an hour before the game, with Lachie McNeil the late replacement

"Hopefully Ed's alright; he'll have some scans. Tim English, same thing - scans. Arty Jones, same thing," Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said.

"So I can't really give you anything on whether or not that's going to keep them out of the game for any period of time - we'll have to wait until we find out tomorrow."

Beveridge was happy with the first quarter, when the Bulldogs seized a 35-point quarter-time lead, but little beyond that.

"We knew that Essendon would come here today and put designs on the contest and the physical side of the game and we needed to weather that early," he said.

"But after quarter-time the game fell away for us. So you give Essendon credit for their pressure.

"But just the blatant turnover stuff and the in-close side of things, we just didn't seem like ourselves."

Essendon shipped the first five goals and were put to the sword by Marcus Bontempelli (35 disposals) and Sam Darcy (three goals), who destroyed Zach Reid early.

Arty Jones out here breaking ankles and slotting it from 50 ?#AFLDogsDons pic.twitter.com/uUnpWePz1o? AFL (@AFL) April 5, 2026

Matt Kennedy (36 disposals) and Ryley Sanders (34) were prolific, while Aaron Naughton kicked three goals.

Jones finished with a career-high three goals and took two first half hangers.

Archie Roberts (37 disposals) and Zach Merrett (30) were influential while Jade Gresham nabbed three goals and Tom Edwards, on return from an ACL tear, kicked two majors along with Archer May.

In the first half, Essendon shipped the first five goals, consistently turned the ball over, missed tackles and left Bontempelli in acres of space.

After Darcy outmarked Reid and dobbed his second goal, Essendon swapped Ben McKay onto the Bulldogs sensation.

The Bulldogs kept the Bombers goalless in the second term to lead by 54 at halftime.

Essendon came out of the break with much-needed renewed intent, kicking four unanswered third-quarter goals, while the Bulldogs' skills were all over the shop.

Scott lamented how the Bulldogs had "jumped" his charges but relished their fightback.

"There are some things to be pleased about. I think the most pleasing thing is it would have been easy for our players to get a bit dejected and flat," he said.

"And the response after halftime after we changed some things, I thought led by Zach Merrett with his pressure around the ball, really the third quarter started to look like how we wanted it to look from the start of the game."

Merrett had zero tackles to halftime but finished with a game high seven.

"It wasn't a spray or anything to Zach, it was just 'let's get back to what we know we can be,'" Scott said.

Luckless Reid sat out the final quarter with hamstring tightness, and in Gather Round, will face rejuvenated Melbourne at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.