The signs are there, just not for long enough.

Essendon looked competitive in snippets through Sunday’s eight-point defeat to St Kilda at Windy Hill, but inefficiency going forward restricted their output in the second half.

Aware of the side’s capability, Assistant Coach Bernard Shepheard knows there’s clear room for improvement especially as they build into an important away matchup against an undefeated Adelaide outfit next week.

“It’s a great way of summarising it (as an ‘almost’ day),” Shepheard told essendonfc.com.au’s The Last Word.

“(It was) a bit of a frustrating finish. We knew St Kilda were an efficient team going inside 50 and we had a plan to try and lower and restrict them defensively, which pleasingly we did really well, kept them to 33 per cent inside 50 efficiency.

“Unfortunately, on the flipside we just couldn’t get enough connection and traction when we were going inside to get the result we wanted.”

Individually, there were still a bunch of positive takeaways for the Bombers.

Young ruck Steph Wales continued her flourishing start to the campaign with 17 disposals and 35 hit-outs, while Georgia Clarke produced a solid shutdown display on St Kilda superstar Jesse Wardlaw.

“Absolutely (we take positives away), ‘Killer’s having a great season so far, three games in,” Shepheard said.

“Another really strong display from her today, particularly her marking down the line was a great feature of the game. ‘GC’ (Clarke) had a really big role on Wardlaw for the game and we thought did a fantastic job, while Maddi Gay’s leadership and ability to drive the ball forward for us is a real feature and we saw that again today.”

A few errors after the main break created another roadblock for the Bombers, with the Saints converting from some undisciplined free kicks and 50-metre penalties to put the contest out of reach.

Looking ahead to that road matchup with the Crows, Shepheard knows the Bombers have an opportunity to reset mentally and refer back to their best style of play.

“We spoke pre-game about execution, discipline, trying to have that for four quarters,” Shepheard said.

“We saw it in patches, we saw it for a half which we thought was really good, but our inability to see it across four quarters was really disappointing. That’ll be a big focus for us this week.

“We feel like we’re doing a lot of things really well at the moment and there’s just a little bit of a lack of connection. It’s great to push a team like St Kilda who are 3-0 and having a really strong season but obviously we want to get the wins on the board – hopefully we can grow off that and get ready for Adelaide.

“Our second interstate trip is exciting and another chance for the group to spend some more time together, get that connection going and hopefully reset and go again.”