ESSENDON'S win last night was, to borrow a phrase, one for the true believers. The true believers of first-year coach Matthew Knights, whose insistence on backing his young team to take risks, attack, and play with flair that has been so widely derided at stages of this season, paid off in spades against the Brisbane Lions, delivering a resounding 37-point victory and providing a thrilling exhibition of fast and furious football to boot.

This was a battle between two teams who wanted to set the momentum, and had two very different ways of going about it.

For the Bombers it was all about an almost frenzied, and thrilling, focus on speed and flair and attack — spiriting the ball forward via scintillating chains of handballs through traffic, and finishing with a similar nod to showmanship.

And for all but 15 minutes in the first half they had it their way, kicking 12 goals through eight players, and out-possessing the Lions 206 to 151.

It was the kind of play that, if it were not Essendon's night, one could see going horribly wrong. But it was its night, and so, as these things go, when the young Dons took those risks, more often than not it went oh so right.

Essendon showed its hand in a dominant first term, and what a hand it was. The goals came thick and fast — eight of them to be precise, with contributions from youngsters Kyle Reimers, Jay Neagle and Leroy Jetta that were destined for the highlight reel. Jetta's major capped a stunning display of speed, balance and showmanship. Running onto a bouncing ball on the 50-metre line, he tapped it forward to himself, gathered, burnt off a pursuing Jed Adcock, bounced, steadied and sent it sailing through. It was the first of three for the young speedster from Western Australia, all executed in similarly exciting style.

But there were stages of the game when the more solid, more experienced Lions looked to be steadying. For the first half of the second and third quarters the Lions wrested back control of the game, finding goals through that ever-reliable forward duo of Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw.

It was instructive that, while Bradshaw appeared to be having a night out at the expense of Dustin Fletcher, and Brown was locked in an engrossing battle with young Patrick Ryder, who rose to the challenge of standing the game's premier froward admirably, the two finished with nine goals between them, such is the class of the big No. 16 that even on a night where he must battle, he is able to bag five.

For those stages that the Lions managed to play the game on their terms, it was a much more even, balanced rhythm.

In those stages that the Bombers struggled, it was their midfield movement that let them down.

The Lions' silky midfield brigade of Simon Black, Luke Power and Travis Johnstone was able to get the takeaways, and even when the Essendon defenders were up to the task, they were unable move it past the half-back line, before it came flying back into attack.

In the third term it looked as though the Lions' rhythm may prevail, with Brisbane hitting the lead for the first time through a miraculous goal from Michael Rischitelli, who booted the ball clear of the centre, only to watch it bounce past six men in front of the goals and cross the line.

It must be said that this phase of the game coincided with a shocking few minutes for Bomber big man Jason Laycock, whose bumbling was directly involved in gifting the Lions three goals.

To his credit Laycock left the field, regrouped and returned to make a solid contribution to the game, including kicking a goal in the final minutes.

And so, for a matter of minutes, the Lions led, first by four points, and then by three, before one of those thrilling cameos from Jetta put the Dons ahead again. Four more followed for the quarter, giving Essendon a handy 19-point lead going in to the final break.

The fourth term was a chance for the young Dons to stand up and show that their hard work had not been in vain, which they did. But there was still some fight in the Lions, primarily in the form of Jared Brennan, who kicked three of their four goals for the term, to finish with four for the night.

But the resistance was futile, with the Dons forcing their way home with quick bursts of goals contributed by a few of the men who had stood up all through the night. Mark McVeigh was one, capping off a stellar night with his second goal early in the closing term, and Matthew Lloyd playing a true captain's quarter with two of his four to put the game beyond doubt. And then there was Brent Stanton, who chipped in with two goals to make his case for best afield very hard to ignore.

ESSENDON 8.3 12.6 17.9 24.11 (155)
BRISBANE LIONS 4.0 8.4 14.8 18.10 (118)

GOALS Essendon: Lucas 5, Lloyd 4, Jetta 3, Stanton 3, Lonergan 2, McVeigh 2, Laycock, Monfries, Nash, Neagle, Watson. Brisbane Lions: Brown 5, Bradshaw 4, Brennan 4, Black 2, Collier, Johnstone, Rischitelli.

BEST Essendon: Stanton, McVeigh, Welsh, Lloyd, Ryder. Brisbane Lions: Johnstone, Brennan, Corrie, Bradshaw, Charman.

INJURIES Brisbane Lions: Leuenberger (knee), Brown (hip), Black (knock to the head).

UMPIRES Chamberlain, Stevic, Stewart.

CROWD 40,053 at Telstra Dome.

THE UPSHOT This was a definitive victory for Essendon's rookie coach Matthew Knights. Bursting out of the blocks with an eight-goal first term, the young Bombers played the game their way — hard, fast and thrilling all the way to the bank. With four wins in a row, the Knights-effect is starting to make itself evident at Windy Hill.

TALKING POINT Three men stood tall with acts of extreme hardness last night. First, David Hille laid two bone-crunching bumps inside 10 seconds in the first term, then Jonathan Brown weathered a heavy knock in a contest in the second and, as he does, played on to kick five goals, and young Sam Lonergan copped a massive hit right at the start of the third quarter and came back to kick two goals inside two minutes later in the term.

HOT AND COLD There were plenty of candidates in the red and black to take the honours last night, but young Brent Stanton showed why he was chosen to wear No. 5 last night with 33 touches and three goals, including one after the siren. Rhan Hooper will be happy to get out of town after his performance. Even his 11 touches hardly did the young man any favours in trying to atone for a very ordinary night out.