Matthew Egan has praised the efforts of the Essendon players in their narrow loss to Gold Coast.

In his first game in charge, the Bombers were always in the contest and a burst of late goals nearly saw them pull off what would have been a remarkable win.

“The effort was outstanding, you could see how disappointed the players were after the game,” Egan said.

“We’ve probably fallen away a lot in second halves this year and I think we held our nerve really well in the second half.”

The game came just four days after the end of James Hird’s coaching tenure was announced.

“It’s probably taken a big toll early in the week, you could probably see a few players struggle early in the game,” Egan said.

“But as the game went on I felt their effort brought them back into the game.”

The Bombers started brightly, laying eight tackles in the first four minutes of the match.

Neither side was able to secure the ascendency for any prolonged period across the four quarters.

But the Suns looked to have done enough when they took a 14-point lead late in the last quarter.

The Bombers continued to attack and drew within a kick with two minutes remaining.

“We spoke a lot about playing as a tight team, doing all the team things out there and they did exactly that,” Egan said.

“We’re a pretty positive coaching group.  We whack when they need to be whacked but tonight was one of those nights where their effort – they did everything we asked.

“As a team and caring about each other I thought it was outstanding so we’ve just got to keep that going.”