Something simply had to give as crucial Bomber Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti continued to gather serious momentum in recent months, and the reward came in the form of five goals against St Kilda on Friday.

The career-best haul played a key role in injury-ravaged Essendon’s tough 43-point victory, and the versatile forward says he was confident a breakthrough performance was around the corner.

“It was good, I’m pretty proud of that and it was good to kick five goals so I’m pretty happy with that,” McDonald-Tipungwuti said post-game.

“I felt that it was coming soon and I just kept working hard and putting on pressure and ended up kicking five.

“The boys played well and it was good to get the win.”

McDonald-Tipungwuti dominated the contest at Etihad Stadium, gathering 15 disposals at an elite 93.3 per cent efficiency to add to his bag of majors.

But it is his work at the coal face that impressed just as much as his potency in front of goal as he claimed nine contested possessions and laid seven crunching tackles.

The 25-year-old said his ability to put constant pressure on the opposition is what he prides his game on.

“I guess pressure is always number one for me and I let the other stuff come running off of that, so I just put on pressure and see how we go,” he said.

Two of McDonald-Tipungwuti’s goals came successively in the dying stages of the first half, adding to an impressive running goal in the first term, and he said he wasn’t going to rest on his laurels after starting the game so well.

“I wasn’t satisfied with three goals, so I said, ‘I want more’. But it was good kicking three in the first half and two in the second.

“We had two on the bench (at the start of the second half) so rotations were pretty hard, so I had to go into the midfield for a bit.

“I wanted more (goals), but then I said, ‘I’ll just play my role here and go in the midfield and help the boys’.”

Brendon Goddard (knee) and Adam Saad (head knock) were unable to return to the field after injuries midway through the opening term before the going got tougher in the second half when two more Dons, Cale Hooker (knee) and Orazio Fantasia (hamstring) failed to take part in the last quarter.

That left the Bombers with no bench for the entire final term and placed even more importance on the side’s ability to rotate a number of players through the midfield, with McDonald-Tipungwuti shouldering a lot of the load.

“I was really exhausted. (I was) trying to come off and there was no one on the bench so we had to do the rotations on the field, but the boys played well and hung on there really well,” he said.

“I guess for me it’s another learning to build my game and I’m pretty happy to go through the midfield and show them my speed and my craft in there.”

But it does work both ways, with many on-ballers assisting the forwards to fill the holes left by Fantasia, Hooker and versatile pair Mitch Brown and Mark Baguley, who were sent to help out in defence.

“A few of the midfielders come along and played their role really well,” McDonald-Tipungwuti said.

“We were down with a few of the forwards like Raz (Fantasia) and a few of the others, and we had Browny going down (back) playing as a seventh (defender) and the boys were happy to play their role, put in and chip around the working load.”

The Bombers continue to rise to every challenge having impressed in winning nine of their last 12 outings, and few challenges are harder than facing reigning premier Richmond at the MCG, which Essendon will do next Friday.

But McDonald-Tipungwuti says he is looking forward to throwing everything at the Tigers in order to keep the side’s finals hopes alive.

“(I’m) looking forward to the challenge. I guess for us (the focus is) building our game and we’ll see how the game goes.

“We’ll give them a challenge and who knows what’s going to happen.”