VFL assistant coaches Ben Patrick (midfield), Nick Daffy (forward) and Wayne Schultz (defence) dissect the performances of their best players in Essendon’s 45-point win over Footscray in round 20.

Jordan Ridley

“Rids just throughout the game displayed really good positioning and took away what Footscray do really well, from that marking point of view. Rids payed his role really well by adjusting continually with his positioning to minimise their impact in the air, they took hardly any marks Inside 50. He got in plenty of good positions to get the footy; one of his weapons is his strength and drive from half back. His role for the team was played super well across the game, notably in the last quarter when we needed to roll the sleeves up, he got himself in good positions in regards to what we were after.” – Wayne Schultz

James Stewart

“His contest work and his work rate was really good. He was going up against one or two extras at times so he brought his teammates into it all game by staying in the contest longer. They’re a pretty good side at intercept marks so we knew there’d be two or three going up so that was really his role and he played it perfectly.” – Nick Daffy

Dylan Clarke

“Dylan was back to his contested best on Saturday. He had some attention early from the opposition; the most pleasing thing is that he was able to work through that and not let it affect his performance. Early in the season he copped a little bit of attention and it’s good to be able to see him work through that.” – Ben Patrick

Bruno Laguda

“It’s his second game back and he had a dual role in the first quarter. He was playing a little bit of back and a little bit of wing time. We asked him to go to an accountable role on Honeychurch halfway through the second quarter. We just felt Honeychurch was having too much influence, he had roughly 20 possessions. Bruno was able to do an accountable role, it wasn’t a tagging job, he was really disciplined in his efforts, team-orientated and I think he was able to hold Honeychurch to 10 disposals for the last two and a half quarters, which helped the team be able to perform in the way that they did.” – Ben Patrick

Nick Hind

“Hindy didn’t have a big influence in the early stages of the game. We changed his role around for the second half and he was able to get back and use his strengths to advantage. He gave us some great drive and run in the last half and that really helped our ball movement going forward, so it was really pleasing that he was able to change his role and then adapt to that as well.” – Ben Patrick

Aaron Heppell

“He was really consistent again. He rarely makes mistakes and from his best game to his worst game there’s not much difference. It’s pleasing for us to be able to rely on him with different roles. He played a lot more inside mid this week and he showed great leadership and communication again. He’s just a great teammate, he does all the right things and really wants his teammates to do well … the consistency’s been huge from Hepp this year, he’s a player who just tries to get in all the right areas, do the team things that we’re asking for. He understands that that’s his role, he works within his limitations and he’s a really selfless player.” – Ben Patrick