The Bombers have been bundled out of the Wizard Cup in straight sets after going down to the Western Bulldogs at Colonial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Essendon lost by 28-points and now head to Fremantle this weekend for a meaningless final round of the Wizard Cup competition. A loss to the Dockers would see the Bombers replicate their pre-season competition form of last season when they failed to win a game. Essendon was without Steven Alessio, Paul Salmon, Justin Blumfield, Mark McVeigh, Chris Heffernan, Danny Jacobs and Damien Peverill on the weekend but that is of little comfort when you consider the Bulldogs were missing Nathan Brown, Scott West and Chris Grant - arguably their three best players. However Essendon assistant Mark Harvey said there were some positives to come out of the game.

""There is no doubt we are getting enough of the ball and I think that is a very positive sign regardless of the result,"" Harvey said. ""We went inside 50 on more ocassions than the Bulldogs which is a good sign. I also thought Matthew Lloyd showed he is on track he could have kicked six or seven and finished with three.""

Harvey was also pleased with Essendon's work rate around the contests. ""We won centre clearances 16-9 which is good, particularly as it was an area we struggled in a little bit at times last season. We also won the hard ball gets 28-17 which was good. So in a number of the key areas we are going quite well,"" Harvey said.

Harvey pin-pointed Essendon's skill level as the major reason they were beaten. ""We turned the ball over 18 times compared with the Bulldogs 9. That figure just isn't good enough and we are going to have to work very hard on our skills in the next few weeks. You make it very hard for yourself if you keep turning over possession. The players know that and they will work on turning that around,"" he said.

Individually, Harvey was pleased with youngsters Sam Hunt and Shane Harvey. ""They are both going along quite well. Sam (Hunt) has really taken giant strides since last season. He played on either Daniel Bandy and Luke Darcy for most of night and that is a big aks but he stuck to the task. He wouldn't have been able to handle a job like that this time last year,"" Harvey said. ""Shane (Harvey) will get better as he gets used to the tempo. He is running to the right places and kicked a very smart goal.""

Harvey also felt David Hille showed improvement. ""He is getting better and he took five marks around the ground. These are an important few weeks for him and i'm sure he is learning plenty along the way,"" Harvey said. ""I also thought Jason Johnson and Mark Mercuri were very good. Jason got plenty of the football while Mark is getting a lot out of spending more time in the mid-field.""

The Bombers started the game well but were unable to put a space between themselves and the opposition. A six-goal last term from the Bulldogs put the game out of Essendon's reach. James Hird, Blake Caracella and Dean Rioli took little or no part in the second half.