Collingwood staged a stunning comeback to win an entertaining Anzac Day clash but the victory came at a cost, with Alex Fasolo suffering yet another injury.
Fasolo, playing just his fourth game after a season-ending second broken navicular bone in his foot last year, had to be substituted out of the game early in the third quarter and finished the match wearing a moon boot. He was sent for scans, but it is understood the injury is to a toe not the navicular.
The Magpies endured further injury trouble when they were reduced to just two on the bench in the final quarter, with running wingman Clinton Young suffering a cork.
After an indifferent start to the season, Dane Swan had clearly his best game of the year – the Brownlow medallist winning the Anzac Medal after a four-goal display.
Before a crowd of 91,731 at the MCG, the Magpies came from 37 points down, booting nine unanswered goals and eventually winning by 23 points.
Collingwood continues to build its season after a thrashing in round one against Fremantle. It now has four wins and two losses and confronts a Carlton side on Friday night with a depleted midfield.
Conversely, the Bombers have lost three games in a row after their bright early start to be muddling mid-table.
Struck by injuries to their midfielders – creative utility Brendon Goddard, first ruck Tom Bellchambers and chief tagger Heath Hocking – Essendon played with aggression in the contests.
Bombers forward Jake Carlisle, who was put on notice that he was on the brink of being dropped after some poor performances, finished with just eight disposals, including four marks.
Importantly, he took only one contested mark, had no impact on the scoreboard and was soundly beaten by young Magpies defender Jack Frost.
In an extraordinary game, Collingwood did to Essendon in the second quarter what the Bombers had done in the first.
In what was threatening to become the most disappointing of anti-climaxes – just as last year’s game was – Essendon kept Collingwood goalless in the first quarter and rollicked to a 37-point lead early in the second term.
But the Magpies scrapped their way into the game.
The Bombers had gone into the game as outsiders, due to injuries to a few of their key midfielders but they battled superior odds with a rugged determination. The Dons, through outstanding first quarters from Brent Stanton (14 touches) and Jake Melksham (nine), surged to a lead of five goals to none through five different goalkickers.
But Collingwood wrenched the contest back into equilibrium by the main break, with six goals in 20 minutes. The Magpies might even have added another but for the fingertip of Dyson Heppell correctly being seen to have scraped the ball from the boot of Travis Cloke.
Essendon kicked just three goals after half-time and only two in the second half to give itself little chance of victory.
