Essendon has kept their finals hopes alive with a come-from-behind 29-point win over the Fremantle Dockers at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Fremantle made a late, late change, ruling out Sean Darcy after he struggled with a groin injury from late in their winning game against Port Adelaide last week, but Michael Johnson came in for the big man and made an immediate impact.
Johnson got his team off to a perfect start with the first goal of the game and his Dockers kept the lead for the first half. But the Bombers chipped away at the visitors in the second half to take the 13.21 (99) to 11.4 (70) win.

Tony Barlow Menswear Player of the year votes.

5️⃣ Michael Walters
4️⃣ Lachie Neale
3️⃣ Nathan Wilson
2️⃣ Bailey Banfield
1️⃣ Brandon Matera
Special mentions to Michael Johnson, Luke Ryan, Scott Jones and Bradley Hill’s start#AFLDonsFreo
✈13.21 (99)⚓11.4 (70)

— 6PR Football (@6prfootball) July 21, 2018

Hear how the game played out…

“I thought we started good, we could’ve pinched it there but they were just too good for us at the end,” Nathan Wilson told 6PR after the game.

“During the week he had good strength, he was ready to play and we thought it would be just continuous improvement. He was in the warm up today, just jagged it a little bit,” Fremantle coach Ross Lyon says about Sean Darcy’s late exclusion.