""Over the past five seasons we have made a preliminary final, two grand finals, finished fifth then sixth, so I think we have bottomed out. That is a pretty big statement because a lot of clubs wait until they are on the bottom and say we have bottomed out and we have no where to go. I think our supporters should have a lot of optimism. The development of a lot of our young players is very good. We are a not an old side - we are a medium to young side,"" Shaw said.
""So it is not as if we have to drop players out and reinvent the wheel. We are certainly on an upward curl. We are very, very disappointed, but we only have ourselves to blame. In the first half of the year we lost to Carlton, Richmond and North and none of these sides made the finals. Even one of those wins and certainly two of those wins and you are in the top four. I think you can go well if you don't get in the top four but you need a lot of luck and a good draw - you don't need to travel twice.""
Shaw conceded that Port handled the wet conditions better than Essendon on Saturday night and were able to play their free flowing, running game. ""Port are a very mature and experienced side. They are super quick forward and that really worried us - they were too quick for us up there. They did get numbers back in defence and made sure Cupido and Lloyd had no space. It was a legitimate tactic and they were in it to win it. It doesn't matter how you win. Where we were strong last week around the stoppages they made sure we couldn't be strong this week. We lost badly in the hitouts in both finals, but we were smashed physically and they took us on in our strength, which was around the ball. They opened up their forwardline and kicked the ball a lot longer than us.""
Essendon's record in wet conditions in recent years isn't over flatting and Shaw said this is something that will need to be addressed by the coaching panel. ""The reason why and what we are going to do about it is something we need to look at. Everyone has got a home ground advantage and we have a significant home ground advantage playing at The Dome in pristine conditions. Your game develops at where you are playing and you adapt to those surroundings. We are having difficulty adapting back to other conditions,"" Shaw said. ""Overuse of handball and shorter style of kicking was also a factor. Their strategy was to make it as crowded, as physical and as tough - it was a very simple and well organised game plan that Port used to minimise Essendon's strength.""
Essendon controlled the majority of play in the second term, but couldn't capitalise on the scoreboard. Two misses from set shots proved costly and gave Port a 16-point advantage at the major break. ""We bombarded the 50m for about 15 minutes and needed to kick those goals and either go in level at half-time or a goal or so up. The whole context of the game changes mentally for them if we were able to do that. But a two and half goal buffer and then they make it three and a half goals in the opening seconds is a hugely significant phase of the game,"" Shaw said.
Dean Rioli played one of his best games for the season against Port. He amassed 23 possessions and kicked one goal. Unfortunately he didn't have a lot of support on the night and played in a number of positions to try and get things moving for the team. ""His work rate and strength and fitness, which has been queried, was fantastic on the big ground. We had to use him everywhere - he was half-back, in the centre, half-forward, he was on the wing and it was probably to the detriment of his game that he wasn't able to settle into the one position, but we had very few good players.""
