Carlisle finished with 18 possessions, 13 contested possessions, 6 marks and 7 rebound 50’s during the 4-point victory.
Captain Jobe Watson said the influence of Carlisle to shut down Dockers forward Matthew Pavlich should not be underestimated.
“He has been enormous Jake and I think a situation like last night, when there are times where a defender has to play one on one because we wanted to try and create even numbers around the ball left him in lot of space,” Watson said.
“There was a passage of play with about 40 seconds to go where he was about one on four and he managed to get the ball forward.”
“He continues to improve, he has a good head on his shoulders and he is going to be a very good player for this club for a long time.”
Essendon coach James Hird paid full credit to the 200cm defender for his performance against Pavlich.
“It was amazing really,” Hird said.
“Jake in the last three weeks has played on Walker, Clark and Pavlich this week and got the points every week so he is in pretty good form.”
Carlisle has now played 31 games at the AFL level since making his debut in 2010.
