Essendon VFL suffered a 72-point defeat to Box Hill last Sunday, with a second quarter fadeout doing the majority of the scoreboard damage.

After starting strong in the majority of their games throughout 2024, the result was frustrating for Senior Coach Blake Caracella.

"We got beaten pretty convincingly around the ball," Caracella said.

"We’ve been good around stoppage and clearance and the numbers might’ve suggested that this week, but once it was out of congestion and around the ground, we got badly outworked and outstructured contest-to-contest.

"It’s the first game we’ve really experienced that this year, given the biggest half-time margin we’d had for the year to that stage was just seven points back in round one."

Despite the disappointing defeat, Bomber fans will be encouraged by some solid efforts from their AFL-listed contingent, including a promising debutant and a stellar performance from a returning midfielder.

Dylan Shiel

26 disposals, six tackles, six clearances, four marks

‘Shiely’ played in the midfield for the majority of the day.

He’s starting to transition both ways like we know he can and using his legs more. He’s put in a solid body of work over the last month.

Sam Weideman

13 disposals, nine marks

‘Weids’ was strong in defence during the first half, but we felt we needed some leadership and experience up in the forward line so we sent him there after half-time.

He gave us some real structure up there and competed really well, so we were happy with his game.

Saad El-Hawli

25 disposals, four marks, three clearances

‘Saady’ found a bit of ball in his first game and showed that his best is quite electric.

He provided run and rebound across the game, playing off both half back and the wing at stages and looking to take it on.

We’re really looking forward to seeing him progress in the Essendon colours.

Will Setterfield

29 disposals, seven tackles, six clearances, two goals

A really good return from injury - the tackling and clearance numbers tells you what you need to know about ‘Setters’ as an inside, contested player.

He started off a little rusty by foot after some time away, but he got better as the game went on and really found his feet in the second half.

Lewis Hayes

19 disposals, six marks

We say it a lot, but the experience for ‘Hayesy’ in playing on different kinds of opponents (tall and small) is really important at the moment.

He’s had to adjust with the makeup of our backline changing over the last few weeks and is competing well in the air, but he’s working a lot on improving his ground ball recently.

Zach Reid

12 disposals, three marks

‘Reidy’s come back and played some really good football, so to see him get injured is really disappointing.

He can’t take a trick at the moment, but we know just how good a player he is and what he’ll be able to provide for us.

Luamon Lual

Seven disposals, six marks, four tackles

‘Luey’ fought really hard down, back given he had his hands full with some dangerous and experienced small forwards.

The ball was down there a fair bit especially in the first half, and even though he didn’t have as much of the ball as in previous weeks, he battled it out and is showing signs of improvement every week.

Jayden Davey

Seven disposals

Jayden found himself outnumbered and getting pretty limited supply in the forward half on the weekend.

He had a bit of a tough day trying to find space up there, we’d love to see him get more involved on the ball and keep applying pressure as games wear on.

Vigo Visentini

25 hit-outs, 12 disposals, three marks, three tackles

This was ‘Vig’s first real outing as a No.1 ruckman without Nick Bryan in the side.

It’s a big step up from playing 10 minutes per quarter in that role to go the entire day with it, especially for a young kid against more mature bodies.

He broke even with the hit-outs which was promising, even if he did find himself beaten around the ground on a few occasions.

He’s a really competitive kid and this was a good game for his growth, he’ll learn a lot from it.

Tex Wanganeen

16 disposals, one goal

Tex found a bit more of the footy this week, which was a good sign, but maybe didn’t use it as well as he would’ve liked going forward.

We want to see him involved in different aspects of the game and it was promising to see him around more contests, so we’d love to see him get those tackling numbers up as well.