Tigers' coach Damien Hardwick was pleased with the performance which he said was dedicated to Shane Edwards who remains in Melbourne after the birth of his child.
Hardwick revealed that one of Edwards' grandparents had died during the week with the premiership midfielder likely to join the club in the hub on September 15.
He said Edwards was in good physical shape and although he might be a bit rusty leading into finals he would have no problem slotting back into the team.
The Tigers' seventh win from their past nine games came after their dominated the play and possession against Essendon, recording 66 inside-50 entries to the Bombers' 24. They also had 12 more scoring shots.
"There was a lot of things we did right, we just couldn't quite get the scoreboard ticking over as nicely as we'd like. I thought we played a pretty good brand of footy and just couldn't quite get the polish on the end and we left a lot of goals on the table," Hardwick said.
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