“We put the Collingwood game behind us pretty quickly,” Knights said. “It was a good win but we moved on. To say we had a let-down is not giving due credit to Brisbane – they played well and were much cleaner with the football than we were.
“There were patches when I thought we pushed pretty hard but we could not create that scoreboard pressure. We started well and were good at the beginning of the third and fourth quarters but you just have to cash in when you have control because you know they will come back at you at some stage.”
Knights said it was no secret that Scott Lucas was struggling for his best form. Again there were glimpses last night but it was not the Lucas Essendon fans have become used to. He went goalless and had to push well up the ground to win possessions.
“Scott is suffering a bit from the weight of expectation that is created when you are such a great player over a long period of time. He had an average night but so did a lot of other players. He will just keep working through that,” Knights said.
Knights did find some positives out of the game, in particular the performance of Jason Winderlich who was Essendon’s most effective forward on the night.
“Jason Winderlich had a good night – we probably needed him forward and in the midfield given the way he is playing. It is great for him because there was a stage when we weren’t sure about whether he would play at all given the significant back injury.”
“I thought Cale Hooker showed a little bit and Tayte Pears also did a good job for three and a half quarters. Daniel Bradshaw got away late but for most of the game I thought Pears did quite well.”
