Essendon left Brisbane in the top eight, but coach Mark Thompson was far from happy with the eight-point win over the Lions.

The Bombers overturned a three-quarter time deficit to win, and despite saying his team showed good composure late in the match, Thompson said there was plenty of room to improve.

"We've got the points so you'd have to be happy with that, but not happy with the way we played and everybody could see that," Thompson said.

"I thought we turned the ball over way too much early. Brisbane looked like they are really quick, they put pressure on us when we had the ball and we found it hard to get it off them with their speed.

"You could see in the last quarter, from where I was, it felt like we were going to win the game, our players stepped up that little notch and did enough to win … that's a good sign."

While not concerned with the Bombers’ spluttering form at this stage of the season, Thompson said there were many areas that needed improving.

One of those was discipline, with Courtenay Dempsey and Jake Carlisle both culprits for giving away 50m penalties.

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Dempsey's brain-fade on the stroke of half-time waltzed Lions small forward Josh Green to the goalsquare right on the siren.

"They're not good are they?" he said.

"They put the (stress) level up in the coaches' box … when they give away 50 and give away an automatic goal.

"That's two of our repeat offenders Dempsey and Carlisle, they've been doing that for a while. You've got to be more professional than that.

"You've got to know the umpires are going to do that to you."

Thompson was full of praise for his backline though, saying if it wasn't for Michael Hurley, Michael Hibberd, Dustin Fletcher and Cale Hooker, "we would have probably lost by 10 goals".

He said Essendon would be ready to take on the in-form Swans at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

"Our boys will naturally rise to that and be excited by that. Couldn't ask for a better game I don't reckon."