Essendon defender Matt Dea says the club’s disappointing 71-point loss to Richmond at Dreamtime at the ‘G was “a bit of a reality check’.

The Bombers were well held by the Tigers throughout the contest and Dea said the side was not able to stick to its structures for long enough.

“The coaches sort of felt, and we sort of felt, like we went away from (our structures) a bit and just got dictated to a bit by Richmond because of their pressure,” Dea said after the loss.

“That’s the sign of a good team and the good teams trust what they do for longer and that’s what we’re trying to be – a really, really good team.

“So we made some inroads over the last couple of weeks, maybe a bit of a reality check today, but just being consistent for long periods of the games is what we want to be about.

“We can take a lot from the lesson tonight and (we are) pretty hungry for next week.”

The Bombers had just three fewer inside-50s than their opponents and gathered 13 more clearances, and Dea says the team’s failure to make the most of its chances will be a focal point ahead of a crucial clash with Brisbane next week.

“I feel that we were able to force a lot of turnovers and weren’t able to score a lot from them, so that’s a little bit of the supply and a little bit of the structure up forward as well, so (it is) a combination of things,” he said.

“We want to give our forwards the best opportunity and we probably didn’t do that tonight, so that will be a big focus for us this week.”

The victory made it 15 successive wins at the MCG for the reigning premiers and Dea said Essendon learnt many lessons from the challenging match.

“When they move the footy forward they do it with speed and pretty cleanly,” Dea said.

“So it makes it tough to defend and they were up and about tonight, we learnt a lot of lessons for it.

“Richmond sort of base their game off pressure and tackles and winning contested footy. I think we out-tackled them, which is probably just a sign that they may have had the ball a bit more, but they’re the benchmark for pressure.

“We’ll learn a lot from it, we still did a lot of things right, (but) they certainly made it difficult tonight for us.”

The former Tiger was one of Essendon’s better performers on Saturday night with 19 disposals at 84.2 per-cent efficiency and seven marks, and said he is itching to break through for his first victory over his old side.

“I certainly feel that Essendon’s my home now and I’m really loving being here.

“Since I’ve been here we haven’t got one over them, which is frustrating, so I thought tonight we had a really good opportunity to, (but) it didn’t pan out that way.

“I would love to beat them, that’s for sure. (It is) frustrating for us, hopefully we can see them in the finals.”