Geelong have seen off another AFL challenger, counter-punching superbly to beat Essendon by 28 points.

Geelong pulled away in the second half of a pulsating contest on Friday night to win 17.11 (113) to 11.19 (85), meaning they are the only unbeaten team after seven rounds.

Speedy midfielder Steven Motlop and Steve Johnson starred for the Cats and Mathew Stokes kicked three goals.

The much-anticipated blockbuster attracted a capacity crowd of 53,014 – the fourth-biggest AFL attendance at Etihad Stadium.

The Bombers’ first loss of the season was sealed when they kicked a wasteful 1.8 in the third term despite controlling play for an extended period.

They will be kicking themselves after having 30 scoring shots to 28 for the game.

When the Bombers were pressing in the third term, it was 25 to 20 and yet they trailed by nine points.

Key defender Tom Lonergan then kicked a crucial goal to wrest the momentum away from the Bombers.

Lonergan was influential as the Cats continued to move their key position players around the ground to great effect.

Geelong started the second half with a four-point lead and took that out to a decisive 33-point advantage early in the last term.

Essendon were far from disgraced and had Geelong under intense pressure in the second term.

The Bombers led by 21 points midway through the quarter.

But a feature of Geelong’s season so far has been their amazing ability to recover from early deficits.

They kicked the last four goals of the half to negate the Bombers’ strong play.

Geelong were handicapped early when they lost run-with midfielder Taylor Hunt, who suffered a shoulder injury in the first term.

Essendon small forward Alwyn Davey was subbed off in the third term with a hamstring injury.