Essendon vs Brisbane Lions Preview & Prediction | 2026 AFL | Regular Season | Round 8

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Essendon are struggling at the bottom end of the AFL ladder as they welcome defending champions Brisbane to the Marvel Stadium in Docklands.

Kick-off date/time:

How to watch on TV: UK – TNT Sports / USA – Some matches are televised on Fox Sports channels

How to watch online: UK – HBO Max & Watch AFL / USA – Watch AFL

The prediction

Essendon have won just one of their seven matches in the 2026 AFL campaign thus far. Their most recent outing saw them suffer a 77-point hammering at the hands of Collingwood last weekend.

Brisbane Lions find themselves fifth ahead of Round 8 with five victories and two defeats thus far. The Queenslanders did put in a strong performance to comfortably defeat the Adelaide Crows last weekend at The Gabba.

Brisbane, with Chris Fagan at the helm, will be expected to motor now and another comfortable victory is to be expected against a poor Essendon side.

Essendon vs Brisbane Lions tip: Brisbane Lions to win -29.5 handicap