2026 AFL Season Round 5: Western Bulldogs v Essendon

This is the match report for the match played on 5 April 2026 between the Western Bulldogs and Essendon during round five of the 2026 season of the Australian Football League. The Western Bulldogs hosted Essendon at Marvel Stadium. Marcus Bontempelli captained the hosts. Andrew McGrath captained the visitors. The hosts were coached by Luke Beveridge and the visitors were coached by Brad Scott.

The Western Bulldogs (14.15.99) defeated Essendon (9.11.65).

Match Details

Season: 2026 AFL Season
Round: Round 5
Teams: Western Bulldogs v Essendon
Date: Sunday 5 April 2026
Time: 7:20 PM
Venue: Marvel Stadium
Attendance: 38,786

Match Results

Outcome: Western Bulldogs def. Essendon
Score: 14.15.99 - 9.11.65

Quarter Breakdown

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Western Bulldogs 7 . 2 10 . 7 10 . 14 14 . 15 14 . 15 (99)
Essendon 1 . 3 1 . 7 5 . 9 9 . 11 9 . 11 (65)
Margin WBUL by 35 WBUL by 54 WBUL by 35 WBUL by 34 WBUL by 34
Duration 31:20 24:58 28:02 31:49 1:56:09

Score Worm

This chart is oriented such that the margin is positive when the hosts (Western Bulldogs) are in the lead and is negative when the visitors (Essendon) are in the lead.

Honour Roll

Western Bulldogs

Captain: Marcus Bontempelli
Coach: Luke Beveridge

Essendon

Captain: Andrew McGrath
Coach: Brad Scott

Brownlow Votes

Player Team # Votes
Marcus Bontempelli WBUL 4 3
Matthew Kennedy WBUL 8 2
Sam Darcy WBUL 10 1

AFLCA Champion Votes

Player Team # Votes 5 4 3 2 1

Player Statistics

Western Bulldogs

# Player Pos. ToG% GL BH DI KI HB MK HO TA CL CR FF FA RF IF
13 Baker, Oskar WL 80% 0 0 24 11 13 9 0 2 1 3 0 0 0 4
4 Bontempelli, Marcus (c) C 84% 1 0 35 15 20 8 1 3 7 3 2 0 0 6
29 Bramble, Lachie INT 81% 1 1 17 10 7 4 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 4
19 Budarick, Connor HBFL 77% 0 0 21 16 5 6 0 2 2 4 2 1 5 5
16 Croft, Jordan RO 66% 0 0 8 3 5 0 6 2 1 2 1 2 0 1
31 Dale, Bailey HBFR 80% 0 0 22 17 5 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 4 0
10 Darcy, Sam CHF 88% 3 3 15 10 5 5 2 3 1 2 4 0 0 2
42 Davidson, Sam INT 75% 0 0 11 8 3 5 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1
26 Dolan, Josh HFFR 77% 1 1 16 7 9 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 4
44 English, Tim RU 53% 0 0 8 6 2 3 16 1 3 0 0 0 2 4
27 Freijah, Joel RR 91% 0 0 26 13 13 3 0 6 3 6 1 1 1 6
11 Jaques, Lachie BPL 85% 0 1 17 10 7 4 0 3 1 3 1 1 2 1
32 Jones, Arthur INT 55% 3 1 10 6 4 4 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 2
8 Kennedy, Matthew FPR 78% 1 0 36 14 22 5 0 1 11 6 1 1 0 4
24 Khamis, Buku FB 95% 0 0 12 9 3 4 0 2 0 1 2 1 2 1
7 Lobb, Rory BPR 89% 0 0 15 13 2 10 3 0 0 3 0 0 3 1
30 McNeil, Lachlan INT 45% 0 1 8 2 6 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 0
33 Naughton, Aaron FF 91% 3 3 10 7 3 6 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 1
18 O'Donnell, James CHB 100% 0 0 11 5 6 4 0 2 0 3 0 2 3 1
9 Sanders, Ryley FPL 84% 0 0 34 10 24 6 0 5 5 5 2 3 1 3
37 Sellwood, Michael INT 71% 0 0 7 2 5 4 0 1 0 4 0 2 0 0
14 West, Rhylee HFFL 74% 0 2 19 6 13 3 0 1 2 1 1 1 1 1
34 Williams, Bailey WR 81% 1 0 20 11 9 8 0 2 1 3 1 1 0 2
Rushed 2
Total (23 players) 14 15 402 211 191 107 28 42 38 59 21 19 26 54

Essendon

# Player Pos. ToG% GL BH DI KI HB MK HO TA CL CR FF FA RF IF
46 Blakiston, Lachlan RU 73% 0 0 6 2 4 0 13 2 1 2 1 1 2 0
6 Caldwell, Jye C 80% 1 0 19 6 13 3 0 5 7 8 1 3 1 1
44 Day-Wicks, Archer WR 85% 0 1 10 6 4 3 0 6 1 6 1 1 0 3
22 Durham, Sam HFFL 84% 0 0 12 5 7 2 0 6 1 5 2 3 3 1
28 Duursma, Xavier WL 78% 0 1 15 8 7 3 0 1 1 3 1 1 1 0
45 Edwards, Thomas FPR 81% 2 2 10 8 2 3 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 1
41 El-Hawli, Saad INT 65% 0 1 13 10 3 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2
2 Farrow, Jacob HBFR 80% 0 0 21 15 6 12 0 2 0 1 0 0 3 2
11 Gresham, Jade INT 78% 3 0 11 7 4 1 0 2 0 1 1 1 0 2
35 Guelfi, Matt CHF 78% 0 1 5 3 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1
40 Johnson, Zak INT 70% 0 0 23 11 12 9 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0
10 Kako, Isaac FPL 73% 0 0 7 4 3 2 0 0 2 3 0 2 0 2
4 Langford, Kyle HFFR 79% 0 0 12 7 5 3 0 2 2 1 0 1 1 3
26 May, Archie INT 75% 2 1 6 5 1 4 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 2
1 McGrath, Andrew (c) BPR 80% 0 0 23 10 13 6 0 2 0 3 1 1 3 1
32 McKay, Ben FB 100% 0 0 4 2 2 3 0 2 0 3 0 2 2 0
7 Merrett, Zach RO 81% 0 0 30 15 15 5 0 7 7 2 4 0 4 3
3 Parish, Darcy INT 66% 0 0 19 8 11 2 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 5
16 Perkins, Archie RR 69% 0 0 8 5 3 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 1
25 Prior, Jaxon BPL 84% 0 0 22 16 6 7 0 1 0 3 0 1 4 3
31 Reid, Zach CHB 73% 0 0 19 14 5 11 0 4 0 3 1 1 2 0
21 Roberts, Archie HBFL 86% 0 0 37 29 8 12 0 0 0 2 0 1 9 3
20 Wright, Peter FF 84% 1 2 10 7 3 5 21 1 0 6 2 2 0 0
Rushed 2
Total (23 players) 9 11 342 203 139 103 38 48 24 59 19 21 39 36

Legend

ToG%: Time-on-Ground Percentage, GL: Goals, BH: Behinds, DI: Disposals, KI: Kicks, HB: Handballs, MK: Marks, HO: Hitouts, TA: Tackles, CL: Clearances, CR: Clangers, FF: Free Kicks For, FA: Free Kicks Against, RF: Rebounds Inside 50, IF: Inside 50s

Player Line-Up

Western Bulldogs Coach: Luke Beveridge
BACK FOLLOWER INTERCHANGE
25 J. Prior 32 B. McKay 1 A. McGrath (c) 44 T. English 29 L. Bramble
8 M. Kennedy 33 A. Naughton 9 R. Sanders 27 J. Freijah 42 S. Davidson
FORWARD 16 J. Croft 32 A. Jones
HALF-BACK

30 L. McNeil
21 A. Roberts 31 Z. Reid 2 J. Farrow

37 M. Sellwood
26 J. Dolan 10 S. Darcy 14 R. West



HALF-FORWARD



CENTRE



28 X. Duursma 6 J. Caldwell 44 A. Day-Wicks



34 B. Williams 4 M. Bontempelli (c) 13 O. Baker FOLLOWER INTERCHANGE
CENTRE 46 L. Blakiston 41 S. El-Hawli
HALF-FORWARD 16 A. Perkins 11 J. Gresham
22 S. Durham 35 M. Guelfi 4 K. Langford 7 Z. Merrett 40 Z. Johnson
31 B. Dale 18 J. O'Donnell 19 C. Budarick

26 A. May
HALF-BACK

3 D. Parish
FORWARD



10 I. Kako 20 P. Wright 45 T. Edwards



7 R. Lobb 24 B. Khamis 11 L. Jaques



BACK



Essendon Coach: Brad Scott

Score Timeline

Quarter Team Scoring Event Score Time
Q1 WBUL Aaron Naughton behind 0.1.1 - 0.0.0 05:15
ESSE Xavier Duursma behind 0.1.1 - 0.1.1 06:41
WBUL Marcus Bontempelli goal 1.1.7 - 0.1.1 07:22
WBUL Lachie Bramble goal 2.1.13 - 0.1.1 09:58
WBUL Bailey Williams goal 3.1.19 - 0.1.1 11:09
WBUL Sam Darcy goal 4.1.25 - 0.1.1 12:47
WBUL Sam Darcy goal 5.1.31 - 0.1.1 15:49
ESSE Archie May goal 5.1.31 - 1.1.7 19:11
ESSE Matt Guelfi behind 5.1.31 - 1.2.8 24:04
WBUL Arthur Jones goal 6.1.37 - 1.2.8 24:30
WBUL Arthur Jones goal 7.1.43 - 1.2.8 26:30
WBUL Rushed behind 7.2.44 - 1.2.8 29:22
ESSE Rushed behind 7.2.44 - 1.3.9 31:01
Q2 WBUL Sam Darcy behind 7.3.45 - 1.3.9 04:44
WBUL Aaron Naughton goal 8.3.51 - 1.3.9 06:29
WBUL Matthew Kennedy goal 9.3.57 - 1.3.9 08:25
WBUL Aaron Naughton behind 9.4.58 - 1.3.9 09:42
ESSE Archie May behind 9.4.58 - 1.4.10 12:24
ESSE Archer Day-Wicks behind 9.4.58 - 1.5.11 15:44
WBUL Arthur Jones goal 10.4.64 - 1.5.11 16:58
ESSE Rushed behind 10.4.64 - 1.6.12 18:32
WBUL Josh Dolan behind 10.5.65 - 1.6.12 19:38
WBUL Sam Darcy behind 10.6.66 - 1.6.12 20:51
ESSE Saad El-Hawli behind 10.6.66 - 1.7.13 22:41
WBUL Lachie Bramble behind 10.7.67 - 1.7.13 24:51
Q3 ESSE Thomas Edwards goal 10.7.67 - 2.7.19 00:52
ESSE Jade Gresham goal 10.7.67 - 3.7.25 02:20
WBUL Lachie Jaques behind 10.8.68 - 3.7.25 04:29
ESSE Thomas Edwards goal 10.8.68 - 4.7.31 06:19
WBUL Arthur Jones behind 10.9.69 - 4.7.31 08:02
WBUL Rhylee West behind 10.10.70 - 4.7.31 09:26
ESSE Peter Wright goal 10.10.70 - 5.7.37 12:49
WBUL Rhylee West behind 10.11.71 - 5.7.37 14:44
WBUL Lachlan McNeil behind 10.12.72 - 5.7.37 16:45
ESSE Thomas Edwards behind 10.12.72 - 5.8.38 18:44
WBUL Rushed behind 10.13.73 - 5.8.38 20:43
ESSE Peter Wright behind 10.13.73 - 5.9.39 23:23
WBUL Sam Darcy behind 10.14.74 - 5.9.39 27:35
Q4 ESSE Peter Wright behind 10.14.74 - 5.10.40 01:48
WBUL Aaron Naughton goal 11.14.80 - 5.10.40 03:10
WBUL Josh Dolan goal 12.14.86 - 5.10.40 07:06
ESSE Jade Gresham goal 12.14.86 - 6.10.46 08:15
ESSE Thomas Edwards behind 12.14.86 - 6.11.47 12:01
WBUL Aaron Naughton goal 13.14.92 - 6.11.47 13:06
ESSE Jade Gresham goal 13.14.92 - 7.11.53 14:42
WBUL Aaron Naughton behind 13.15.93 - 7.11.53 16:49
ESSE Archie May goal 13.15.93 - 8.11.59 19:04
WBUL Sam Darcy goal 14.15.99 - 8.11.59 20:31
ESSE Jye Caldwell goal 14.15.99 - 9.11.65 23:26