another behind extended the margin to a game-high 22 points and had scored the last five goals of the game, but at this point the Bulldogs fought back. Wallace later commented that as the game had been played by Essendon winning the ball and attacking, while the Bulldogs stayed back in zone defense, this played into a fatigue advantage to the Bulldogs; while three injuries to Essendon players (Hardwick went off with an ankle injury in the first quarter, Dean Rioli went off with a shoulder injury in the final quarter and Jason Johnson had been hobbled for much of the game) also helped. The Bulldogs then had the best of the final ten minutes of the game to fight back. Chris Grant kicked his first goal of the game straight out of a ruck contest, before Steven Kolyniuk kicked two goals to narrow the margin to just five points – the first coming when he took a kick on Trent Bartlett's behalf after he went off the ground with the blood rule after a strong mark just outside the goal square, and the second from his own mark. Several subsequent chances were then missed, with Paul Hudson kicking three behinds from the forward pockets (he kicked 0.4 for the game) and Brad Johnson hitting the post from a 40m set shot, narrowing the margin from five points to one. With two minutes remaining and the margin one point, Nathan Eagleton took a wide angle set shot which went across the face of goal and fell in the right forward pocket, and in the ground contest that followed Essendon full back Dustin Fletcher accidentally toe-poked the ball out of bounds on the full; from the free kick, Grant ran around on the angle and kicked the goal to put the Bulldogs five points ahead. Essendon made one final attack towards its full forward Matthew Lloyd, but Bulldogs defender Matthew Croft won the contest. The Bulldogs rebounded from the ensuing contests, and the siren sounded as Rohan Smith marked in the Bulldogs' forward line; his after-the-siren kick extended the final margin to 11 points. When the final siren sounded, Brad Johnson made a direct line to hurl abuse at John Barnes, before he and the other players shook hands in the usual way. Details Aftermath Essendon rebounded from its defeat, defeating its final match of the home-and-away season to finish on