Essendon have dented Brisbane's AFL top four aspirations, making the most of a Lions team depleted by injury and illness to claim a 10-point win at the Gabba.

Essendon have put a dent in Brisbane's AFL top four aspirations, beating an injury and illness-hit Lions to claim a 10-point win at the Gabba.

With in-form tall forward Peter Wright kicking five goals, the Bombers made it three wins from their past four matches with a 15.10 (100) to 13.12 (90) win.

The defeat is Brisbane's first home loss of the season and just their second defeat in their past 18 games at the Gabba.

Missing nine players through a combination of injury and COVID-19, the Lions threatened to snatch a win in the final minutes but couldn't find a way to get over the resurgent Bombers.

"It was a really challenging week losing two or three players every day," Lions coach Chris Fagan said.

"I'm not going to go home tonight unhappy with them at all. I'm going to go home disappointed that we lost the game and frustrated, but in terms of effort and trying hard it's a really decent effort I believe.

"Not the end of the world."

Jye Caldwell, who spent much of the afternoon marking stand-in Lions captain Lachie Neale, was a stand-out performer with 26 touches, seven tackles and a vital fourth-quarter goal.

Zach Merrett was also impressive for the visitors with 31 touches, six clearances and three goal assists.

Kyle Langford was the other multiple goal-kicker for the Bombers with four majors.

"It was eight or nine changes they had but they still had a pretty experienced, potent team out there and to come up to the Gabba at any time against these guys at the moment is a difficult task," Bombers coach Ben Rutten said.

"I don't think we've won up here since 2018.

"We knew they are going to be up for the fight, Brisbane were going to bring it to us and, yeah, I was really pleased with the way we stuck at it.

"They're the sorts of games against good teams on the road that we need to be up for.

"I thought the way we handled it showed some maturity and some real grit."

Brisbane's loss leaves them level on points with the in-form Collingwood with six games to go in the home-and-away campaign.

After winning eight of their first nine matches, the Lions have lost four of their past seven.

Fagan was philosophical about the damage the loss might do in the race for the top four, focusing on the exceptional circumstances his squad had faced during the week.

"We can't cry over spilled milk," he said.

"We've been dealt a hand with some circumstances out of our control.

"We did the best we could under those circumstances.

"These are the times that we live in."

Brisbane will look to bounce back next weekend against GWS while the Bombers host Gold Coast.