The Western Bulldogs overran Essendon in the last term to win their AFL match by 30 points at Telstra Dome.

The undermanned Bombers took it up to the heavily-favoured Bulldogs and led by 11 points early in the final quarter, but the Dogs then kicked six unanswered goals to win 19.14 (128) to 14.14 (98).

Essendon's already long injury list looks to have become even worse, with Mark McVeigh and Sam Lonergan forced from the field early in the last term with hamstring injuries.

While the Bulldogs were out-run at stages and nearly lost control of the game, they rallied when it counted and their greater class proved crucial.

Midfielders Daniel Cross and Ryan Griffen helped steady their side and then put the game out of Essendon's reach, while ruckman Will Minson's important last quarter featured two goals.

Key defenders Dustin Fletcher and Patrick Ryder were outstanding for the Bombers and McVeigh's injury was particularly damaging given his game.

The Bulldogs, who fell away badly last season, have now opened with four-straight wins.

But they had several players well down on form and Essendon nearly took the game out of their reach.

The Dogs kicked the first goal in the opening minute and had put through another two before Essendon responded.

Confirming their favouritism, the Bulldogs led by 26 points at the main break, before Essendon ramped up their defensive work.

They reduced the margin to 17 points at half-time and hit the front for the first time at 21 minutes into the third quarter.

Essendon led by 10 points at the last change, but they were unable to score the crucial opening goal of the final term.

That went to Minson, who marked and then scored from an acute angle.

They regained the lead two minutes later through Jarrod Harbrow's accurate snap and soon had control of the match.

Essendon had already lost captain Matthew Lloyd (calf) and Leroy Jetta (hamstring) and then Angus Monfries was a late withdrawal with food poisoning.

The Bombers have worked hard to improve their pace, but have a worrying number of hamstring casualties - Courtenay Dempsey is also out for the same reason.

Essendon coach Matthew Knights said they would thoroughly investigate why they have had such an unusually high number of hamstring injuries this early in the season.

The Bombers were determined to start the season strongly and now have a 2-2 record, with St Kilda to come next Friday night.

"As a club, we have to investigate everything in the program and we'll do that diligently, looking at scenarios - we've had three six-day breaks to start the season, we played late on the Monday in the first round," he said.

"We've got to look at that, with a young team ... there's no real answer at this stage."

Knights did not think the state of their Windy Hill training ground would prove to be a factor.

While he accepted the losses of Knights and Lonergan hurt Essendon's chances, he refused to blame the loss on being two men short.

Essendon's plight during the final term will fuel the debate over whether the interchange needs to be expanded to more than four players.

"We did rotate heavily through the evening, it's disappointing when Mark McVeigh and Sam Lonergan went down, obviously we were going to plan to throw those two at them," Knights said.

"Certainly those two guys coming out of the lineup didn't help the scenario, but it's not an excuse for losing the game."

Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said his team lacked solid contributions from several top players, including captain Brad Johnson, but still managed to win.

"He just had one of those nights, Brad, everything he touched turned to clay ... is that how you spell it?

"It was good to win where there was no influence really from him, (Robert) Murphy, (Lindsay) Gilbee, (Adam) Cooney in patches, Gia (Daniel Giansiracusa), (Mitch) Hahn.

"We probably had five or six of our better players who had no influence at all on the game tonight.

"It's a pleasing sign for the group to be able to mature, to be able to do that."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP