After one of its most emotional weeks in the last three years, Essendon’s focus against Gold Coast was helping each other out.

The Bombers fell narrowly short of a win but the coaches were pleased with the effort.

“They were absolutely desperate to get the win and they didn’t do it, but gee they tried hard,” Interim Essendon Coach Matthew Egan said.

“We had our focus during the week of ‘team care’ and I think that was pretty obvious.”

Dyson Heppell, Ben Howlett and Shaun McKernan had 11 contested possessions each.

The Dons edged the Suns in one percenters with Jake Melksham (10) and Jake Carlisle (9) leading the way.

“I think in defence you see players really trying to help each other in the air, covering for each other," Egan said.

“I spoke about our attack during the week, just trying to share the ball more, get some overlap handball, be more direct and we definitely saw that. 

“Their effort was outstanding, we can’t question that, there was definitely some improvement and we’re going to work really hard to keep it going the last two weeks.”

Assistant Coach Mark Harvey said the effort was particularly pleasing after a difficult build up. 

“Just from a pure emotion point of view, it’s been a huge week in many ways,” he said.

“Just to see the players adopt that team focus under enormous pressure and enormous distraction was something that we can take forward in to the next two weeks.

“If they bring that attitude, that intent, then we’ll see exactly where we’re at.”