Essendon captain Dyson Heppell has not minced his words in an honest response after his side’s disappointing 36-point loss to Melbourne.

Sunday’s loss was the Bombers’ second defeat across five days, and Heppell implored his teammates to learn from the match and lift for the club.

“The main message is AFL footy is a bloody tough caper,” Heppell said after the match.

“Performances like this you really need to learn from, delve into what your mindset is and how much you care about playing for this footy jumper and the footy club.”

Essendon took a six-point lead into half-time, but capitulated in the third term as the Demons booted seven goals to one.

The skipper said he was disappointed that the Bombers were not able to “respond when the heat came” after the main break.

“I thought we were fantastic in our contest work in that first half, played the way we wanted to and really got on top around the ball.

“And they just really lifted their intensity, their pressure and their outnumbering at the footy and they were able to flow out in waves.

“(We) let ourselves down big time in that third quarter.”

Heppell said it is important for the team to stay united as they strive to return to their best.

“You go to work, it’s your job. So we go back and we work on our game, we improve, we stick together and eventually it turns.

“You keep the game very basic – you don’t need to overcomplicate things – and just become very good at what we do.

“It’s a long season. We’re six rounds in and we’ve got a lot of footy ahead of us and no doubt we’ll be able to turn it.”

Heppell – who gathered 18 disposals and had six tackles in the defeat – took responsibility for some mistakes on the field, but said he won’t let the result dent his leadership and positive outlook.

“I’ll always come in with a smile on my face, positivity, and go to work,” he said.

“I let myself down in a couple of contests tonight and that’s the way footy goes.

“I’m definitely going to put in an enormous amount of work and I won’t stop driving the team and (we will) see if we can turn it around.”

Heppell praised the efforts of debutant Kobe Mutch, who impressed in his first senior game with 20 disposals and six marks.

“I thought he was fantastic, he played the way we want to play, just did his role, worked super hard and sat under a couple of high balls which I thought was outstanding.

“Credit to him, he puts in a lot of work, so (it was) well deserved.”

The Bombers will look to overcome their form slump in an important clash with Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday.