Our win over Hawthorn last Friday night was a terrific effort. Hawthorn has been rock solid for a long period of time, so it was a fantastic result to get the win. It’s too early to know how much we can take out the win at this stage, but we might find out a little bit more about where we’re at in tonight’s game against Essendon.

It was exciting to have all four of the big forwards out there with Kurt Tippett, Lance Franklin, Sam Reid and Adam Goodes all on the park last week. There was, of course, a little bit of uncertainty before the game about how it was all going to pan out, because the group hadn’t spent much time working together due to their respective injuries. They all competed really hard individually and how much effort they brought to the team was something we were looking at. After that, it was about just fine-tuning various running patterns and keeping an eye on how they work together. It was fantastic to have them all back fit and firing and we really hope we can continue to build on that in the coming weeks.

After missing the first eight rounds, it was particularly good to see Kurt back out on the park. It was great to see how much impact he had early in the game with his big contested mark and goal early in the first quarter. I’m sure getting on the board early would have given him confidence and even off a short preparation we can see how much he can contribute to the team. It also gave the rest of the boys confidence knowing that they could kick it to his advantage and that he could do the job. For Kurt to finish the match with four goals as a really strong contributor was a great effort in his first match back.

We now face another huge match when we take on the Bombers tonight at Etihad Stadium. The Essendon defence have been really solid over the last few weeks, led by Dustin Fletcher, as well as Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley, Courtenay Dempsey, who gives them a bit of run, and Michael Hibberd, who is also a good player. They’ve got a pretty solid back six and they played well last week and they’ve had a pretty good season so far. They should cover us pretty well height-wise and they’ll definitely be a challenge to break down.

The Bombers have been in pretty reasonable touch and they pushed Hawthorn earlier in the year, and their best is certainly good enough to challenge anyone. We expect them to come at us at a million miles an hour and we need to be ready for it. It’s always great to play under lights at Etihad Stadium and hopefully our Melbourne-based supporters can help pack it out and the boys get the job done.