Essendon VFL fielded 10 AFL-listed players in Saturday night's clash against Collingwood, including five first-years and a total of just 54 games of AFL experience amongst their entire side.

In defeat, the Dons' fast-paced game looked exciting in bursts, with third-term inaccuracy potentially standing in the way of a closer finish than the 119-88 scoreline suggested.

Highlighting each of the performances from the Club's young AFL crop, VFL Senior Coach Cameron Joyce was full of praise for the group's development against more experienced teams week-to-week, growing into their system as the season progresses.

“Even against Port Melbourne the week before, playing a more experienced and mature-bodied team, it’s great just being able to work through different scenarios and different challenges throughout the game, and I thought we navigated it pretty well," Joyce said.

"We had some opportunities in the third quarter to get the game back on our terms and we unfortunately ended up with 3.7 from those chances.

"In the last quarter we were obviously behind, so we were really trying to take the game on, use the ball in the corridor and have the mentality where we want to try and see if we can get back in the game regardless of circumstance. We’ll be grateful for all these experiences in the long run.

"I'm really looking forward to having some (AFL) boys come back into the side next week and seeing if we can try to push some of the boys up into the seniors sooner rather than later."

Lewis Hayes

19 disposals, 10 marks

‘Hayesy’ had a good challenge this week on Charlie West and Mason Cox, who are obviously good key position players at that level.

We felt he did a really good job, competed well in the air and he was hardly outmarked, but also was able to get involved on offence and help our ball movement a bit from the back half.

He keeps progressing well and we’ll look to keep giving him as many challenges as we can in terms of those top liners in the VFL.

Kayle Gerreyn

14 disposals, three marks, three clearances, two goals, three behinds

Kayle’s shown he’s able to get involved in different ways, not just marking the ball but also at ground level.

He pinch-hit for us in the ruck on the weekend too, he's been able to get and generate shots on goal through most of the games he's played so far and now it's just about working on a little bit of conversion with him at times.

We’ve been really impressed with some of the contested stuff that he's doing and he's continually trying to work on his craft, his body work and positioning, which will get better every week.

Alwyn Davey Jnr

14 disposals, three marks, three tackles, two goals

Everything for Alwyn’s coming off the back of his pressure.

We’ve sort of made that a real focus for him, seeing how that pressure translates to scoreboard impact and he's done that for us over the last two weeks in particular, working up and down the ground, trying to get to as many contests as he can.

He’ll keep working on his game and try to round it out.

Luamon Lual

15 disposals, three marks, three tackles

A big positive for us with ’Luey’ is that he runs really good patterns.

His work rate and running capability is super high end, so he’s been able to get back to help us defend and then also get forward to challenge and compete.

We’re just trying to look for him to get more involved have a bit more impact with ball in hand.

Rhys Unwin

12 disposals, three marks, three tackles, one behind

Rhys has been working really hard for us between the arcs getting up, getting back to help us defend, but he’s also been used as an outlet out of defence.

He’s generated forward 50 stoppages, some shots on goal in the last couple of weeks, which has been nice and he’s absorbed the pressure in some traffic as well. He’s certainly improving with more VFL exposure.

Vigo Visentini

28 hit-outs, 21 disposals, five clearances

Vigo’s really enjoyed being the number one ruck and having so much more time in there over the last two weeks in particular.

We’re really seeing (how much he’s enjoying the ruck time) not just in terms of his possessions but his general involvement in the play.

His follow up, his ability to tackle, his hit-outs to advantage are allowing him to be more active in the game.

He probably had a few opportunities to take a couple of missed marks on the weekend but we'll try to keep working with him on his craft in that area - the positive of that is he's getting into some really good spots to be used and also to help us defend.

Zak Johnson

33 disposals, eight marks, one goal

Zak’s got a lot of composure for a young player. He uses the ball so well and makes really good decisions both by hand and foot, so when we have it in his hands we’re often retaining it, which is great.

Playing across half back, we’re working on those defensive principles and actions just to really round his game out and keep that development going.

Saad El-Hawli

17 disposals, five marks, one goal, two behinds

‘Saady’ pushed forward a few times and really looked to challenge their wingers.

He had three shots on goal, which is a good sign. He was strong in a few key contests and we certainly know his ability to use the ball and generate some run and carry – that’s certainly what he can bring every week.

A decent game for him.

Jayden Nguyen

19 disposals, three marks, three tackles

We’re really trying to put him on the best small forwards that we come up against weekly.

He played on Lloyd against Port Melbourne and held him maybe to one goal and very few possessions, then he held Hayes from Collingwood goalless, and he’s a smart little forward too. He's had a good couple of weeks in locking down some really lively players and then being able to get a fair bit of the footy himself off the back of his defence, competitiveness, power and speed.

Archer Day-Wicks

20 disposals, five tackles, four marks, four clearances, one behind

We’ve been trying to play him forward and on-ball, giving him good looks at both.

As I’ve said before, he runs really good patterns and it gives us a really good link in between our defence and forward half.

His ability to double up on plays and use the ball really smartly for such a young player is really promising.