“His mark was brilliant - looks like he might get himself a car too,” Prescott said.
“It was a fantastic grab but eight goals one was absolutely sensational, he plays close to goals, he plays higher he has a lot of variety in his game and his leadership is fantastic.”
Prescott said, while the coaches are happy with the win against Melbourne, it was a bit of a battle.
“They play an interesting game style where they get a lot of numbers back which makes it a little bit hard for our forwards but to kick nineteen goals and nine points was a good conversion rate and it was a gutsy win I thought.
“I think our boys got a little over anxious at times and probably, defensively, gave up some pretty soft goals with the Melbourne players getting up over our defence.
“They have some dangerous players Melbourne and they were very good around the stoppages which is an area we were beaten in pretty soundly. We have been pretty strong around the midfield clearance in recent weeks but they gave us a bit of a toweling up in the area today.”
Monfries and McPhee were great in fact our forward line performed well all day.
A nice kick from Reimers hit Lloyd on the chest 30m from goal and the Bombers had the first major of the game
Two minutes later the captain roved a pack to get his second goal thanks to some good earlier work by Hille and McPhee.
Third gamer Maric got the Demons first but the Bombers responded quickly through a down-field free kick to McPhee 20m from goal.
Essendon had the run of the game across the field - with Lovett-Murray and Stanton racking up touches - but squandered numerous forward thrusts and turned the ball over too easily too many times.
The Demons responded by scoring their second goal through Bartram to cut the difference to five points.
That was to be the final score and the quarter finished with both sides having four scoring shots with the Bombers looking more dangerous but unable to capitalise.
The second term started with Melbourne’s Jamar marking, playing on and missing from just 3m out directly in front before Lloyd kicked one from 50m out near the boundary line 20 seconds later to pass Peter McKenna and move into eighth place on the all-time goal kicking list with 875 goals.
Melbourne was getting great service out of Morton who had ten touches in the first quarter and got a goal early in the second.
When no-one tried to spoil Sylvia, he took a mark standing in the middle of a pack near goal and scores were leveled at 27 apiece.
The Demons hit the lead when a busy Buckley streamed into goal and slotted through his first – Essendon looking flat footed and in trouble.
The Bombers need a lifter and it came in the form of Lovett, back from a two game club imposed suspension. He took the ball near the centre and ran, bounced, dodged an opposition player and kicked his first.
It seemed to do the trick and Monfries responded, quickly wrestling back the lead with his first major.
An uncharacteristic free kick and 50m penalty against Michael put some heat in the game as players wrestled and the Demons brought up their sixth goal. Essendon leading by just two points.
The Bomber defence came under increased pressure this quarter but were holding strong and had some relief when a clash of heads in the Clash for Cancer saw Monfries awarded a free kick near goals.
Thanks to some good grunt work from Peverill to get the ball forward, Lovett roved a pack a minute later to dart off and bring up his second six pointer.
Another good pass from McPhee to Lloyd saw the captain get his forth, the margin now 21-points.
Davey, who had looked threatening for Melbourne, snuck one home from 55m out to breathe some life into the game.
The margin back to 15-points at the main break.
The premiership quarter started badly with Sylvia marking and kicking his second goal in the first 30 seconds. When Johnson crumbed a goal one minute later, Melbourne had cut the margin back to just three points.
It took until almost the ten minute mark for the Bombers to get their first goal when Lloyd roved off Ryder’s hands to get his fifth major.
A poor handball from Laycock was intercepted by Wonaeamiri for a goal and when Sylvia kicked his third six pointer, this time from almost 60m out, the Demons were back in front by two points.
Some nice work from Watson and Stanton got the ball to Atkinson who avoided a number of opponents and booted his first goal. Monfries continued to push and was rewarded with a mark 35m out directly in front. He kicked truly and Essendon was up by 10-points.
Reimers brought the crowd to life when he roved a pack near the goal square to get his first major.
But his crowd lifter paled in comparison when Lloyd took one of the marks of the year - and possibly the best of his career – on the edge of the goal square and then kicked his sixth for the game.
Essendon finished a much better quarter up 21-points.
Slattery ran forward to start the final quarter with a curling goal but celebrations were cut short when Melbourne responded quickly through Green.
Ryder continued his good game when he fed the ball out to McPhee who kicked his second and took the margin out to a seemingly match winning 27-points.
With the sting going out of the game Jamar marked and got his first major for the day to keep Melbourne’s hopes alive.
When Green found Morton, who goaled 20m out directly in front, the margin was back to 15-points.
When Bate got the next the game looked set for a boil over but the Bombers had other ideas.
Matthew Lloyd kicked a true captain’s goal and Essendon got on a serious roll.
