The weekend’s loss to Hawthorn by two points was disappointing, but we can take some positives out of that game, particularly in the form of some of our younger players, who played really well. Nick Smith continued his good form; Daniel Hannebery obviously had a really good game again - he was very instinctive the way he went about his play. He ran extremely hard, and for such a young player, his work rate was terrific. He’s put in some very good performances of late, and to play to that standard against quality opposition is a real credit to him. Rhyce Shaw also continued his good form, and we thought Shane Mumford, who came back into the ruck after a couple of weeks on the sidelines, played really well for us. So from that point of view there’s some players there who we were reasonably pleased with after the game.

We’ve got enough good players in our side at the moment to be more than competitive and to win games of footy. It’s tough when you’ve got several key players on your injury list, and in an ideal world, guys like Daniel Bradshaw, Tadhg Kennelly, Craig Bolton and Ben McGlynn would be back in the team and playing well. Some of our good players are probably a little bit out of touch, but we’re confident those blokes will get back to playing good footy very soon - they have done in the past and we’re sure they’ll do it again very quickly.

It’s good for us to see the amount of depth that’s been added to the side by the new guys in our team. Shane missed a couple of weeks but showed on the weekend how important he is when he comes back into the team - with his follow-up work around stoppages and his run, he’s a real competitor. Joey Kennedy played quite well for us on the weekend against his old side - his inside work is good, he’s a big body and is very clean around the ball. Benny McGlynn is hopefully not too far away from being back in the team, because he gives us that real speed. Obviously Seabs is a long way away from coming back, and there’s also Braddy who’s out injured, but we feel we’ve got some really good depth across the board now.

I think we had our opportunities to win the game. In the first half, I think our good players and their good players nullified each other a little bit. In the second half, a couple of Hawthorn’s important players got going, and they were able to pull away. There were some pleasing signs, but there was also a bit of inconsistency in the way we moved the ball at times. We need to just make sure that we get our hands on the ball when we need to, and to get the ball going inside 50 - we had 15 fewer inside 50s than the opposition, so we’ve got to get the ball going forward a bit more.

Essendon have really improved in a lot of areas, with probably the key area being their tackling. They’ve had some criticism publicly in regards to the defensive side of their game, but they’re number one in tackles in the competition, so their pressure skills are very good. You’ve got to understand that when you play them; they’re not just a team that’s all attack. You look at their stats and they’re more than capable of putting pressure on. In my view, that’s been the biggest improvement in their game.

Their ruckmen are very good - you look at Hille and Ryder, they’ve been good in the ruck but they’re also a focal point for the Bombers when they go forward. Jobe Watson is always an important player for them - he’s their captain, and is really capable of getting them going when he’s in the middle of the ground. Winderlich was really important for them last week, as was Stanton - there’s some outside runners there that get them going, and they really capitalise on Watson’s side work. The battle will be won and lost in the midfield, so we’ve really got to make sure that we’re strong in that area.

In terms of our preparation, it’s about trying to make sure that you continue to educate the team before the next game. We ask questions of the players, and really take the whole squad through the process of addressing the areas we need to, while focusing on the positives that have come out of the game. I think that from that point of view, there are some things that we can look at this week that can really help our game, and obviously there’s some things that we need to tweak to be stronger and more consistent across all four quarters of the game. Another focus for us will be getting our pressure skills up. It’s always our major key indicator in how we go about our business - if our pressure skills are up, and we’re putting pressure on the opposition when they’ve got the ball, generally everything flows from that.