Jobe Watson says Essendon’s ability to improve its consistency is the key to the second half of the year.

Just one win separates fifth from 13^th on the ladder, with the Bombers in sixth spot ahead of their mid-season bye.

A 70-point victory over Port Adelaide propelled the Dons from 12^th at the start of the round to now just a game out of the top four.

“It’s such an even season and consistency is the key,” Watson told 3aw.

“In the second half of the year we need to be able to execute that style of play for four quarters.

“That’s our challenge.

“We’re under no illusion that we’ve still got a lot of stuff that we need to fine-tune.

“We know that when we are playing the style we want we can match it with anyone but the challenge is consistency.”

The win against the Power capped a five-week stretch where the Bombers have faced sides jostling for top four spots.

In that period the Bombers won three games and lost two with the most impressive performance saved for the match against Port Adelaide where the side not only posted its highest score of the year, but also restricted the visitors to just eight goals from 51 forward 50 entries.

“The most pleasing thing was that it was the lowest score we’ve kept a side to," Watson said.

“We’ve had trouble this year keeping sides to under 100 points and to keep Port who are a really powerful scoring side to 61 points is really pleasing.”

It was only the second time this season the Bombers have recorded more inside 50s than the opposition and Watson said a more cohesive midfield group will ease the burden on the defenders.

“As a midfield group we’ve taken a little while to gel together and we haven’t been working as well as we would have liked around the contest and in the clearances,” he said.

"We’re starting to do more and more work with that and it’s reflected with the inside 50s we’ve been conceding to other teams.

“We know we can’t keep surrendering 65 inside 50s to our defenders and I thought our contest and method around the ball was much better (against Port Adelaide) and it alleviated some of the pressure we’ve been putting our backs under.”