Essendon Bombers star Nic Martin warns passionate West Coast Eagles fans will lift their players on Friday

Essendon star Nic Martin has declared West Coast’s passionate crowd will make Friday night’s clash a much tougher battle than the Eagles’ form suggests, saying the noise and energy they create is why the Bombers have struggled to play their best in Perth. The Eagles will host the Dons on Good Friday hoping to play significantly better than they have in the early rounds. They can take confidence from their recent record against Essendon given one of West Coast’s two victories in 2022 came against the Bombers in Perth. West Coast led Essendon deep in time-on at Marvel Stadium in 2023 before losing by one point. The Eagles also challenged Essendon at Optus Stadium last year and lost by just six points. While West Coast lost by a combined 152 points across their last two games, Martin said it was never easy playing against them in Perth. “They have been close games. They beat us in my first year over in Perth.,” Martin told The West Australian. “The thing with West Coast is, no matter how poor they are on the ladder, the supporters come out at Optus. It’s a really, really tough environment to go to, especially when someone like Harley Reid gets the ball and there’s excitement around him. The fans are really supportive.” Essendon have traditionally struggled to play their best football against bottom four teams, with the team repeatedly losing to struggling clubs across the last decade. But Martin said coach Brad Scott was constantly emphasising the need to treat every team as a threat. “Brad always talks about how tight the competition is. That is true,” he said. “Any team can beat anyone on any given day. We’ve seen that already in five rounds. The team that sticks to their process and what they’re trying to do will most likely get the result. “Melbourne were 0-4 but we didn’t take them lightly. The expectation is that we bring effort, we bring the contest and the rest of the game builds off that.” After a poor start to the season which included a 61-point loss to Adelaide, the Dons have won their last two matches. Martin believes last week’s win over Melbourne showcased changes how the Bombers are playing. “We’re honing in defensively first and foremost. After a poor result against Adelaide where we got a couple of things wrong defensively like allowing too many uncontested marks, we tidied that up. Then we’re allowing our offence to build off that,” he said. “When you put the season into perspective, Hawthorn was an okay performance. We competed hard against a really good side. Adelaide was really poor. We responded well to Port. If you put the season into perspective, there’s been a lot of improvement.”