While the Bombers did not come away with the victory, Robert Shaw saw many positives from Saturday night’s game. 

The Bombers were outclassed by a Tigers outfit who have benefitted from the return of a number of key players.

Only trailing by 16-points at the main break, the Tigers maturity and cohesion as a team proved to be the difference as they ran away 38-point victors.

Richmond clearly benefited from the return of key utility, Brett Deledio, who not only lead by example – but inspired his teammates to lift their own performances.

“Richmond getting Deledio back into the side is so critical to them,” said Shaw

“All of a sudden they’ve got the balance that they want, which makes their other players play really well.

“In the end it was a class differential I felt, but the game didn’t reach any great heights.”

Essendon Coaches seemed to rotate players into new positions in order to create a spark during the game. 

A number of the moves had great success, with Shaw praising the willingness to experiment and develop players’ ability to play a variety of roles.

Particularly noticeable was the game of Darcy Parish.

The young midfielder was sent to the forward line and was able to make the most of his opportunities, kicking two important goals.

“I like those decisions and that’s probably the coach coming out in me,” said Shaw 

“I want to see things happen from the coaching perspective that is thinking ahead to next year. 

“I don’t think that Parish is going to spend the next 200-games as a crumbing forward, but we got something out of that.” 

Essendon currently sit in 17^th position and will travel to Western Australia this week for a clash against the winless Fremantle.

There have been a number of promising signs for the Bombers over the last few weeks, but they will be searching for more wins from the remainder of the year – with Shaw believing that the next one is just around the corner. 

“I firmly believe that Essendon are better than Fremantle, Gold Coast and Brisbane,” said Shaw 

“I want Essendon to win, I don’t want Essendon to finish on the bottom of the ladder.

“We’ve certainly come a long way from the events of the pre-season to a stage where I expect to win games. 

“Hopefully it starts this week because Essendon don’t deserve, as a Club and after what we’ve been through, to finish on the bottom of the ladder.”