""It is a bit of a hoodoo stadium (AAMI Stadium) for us. It is totally unacceptable to loss by that margin. We have to go back and redeem ourselves in six days,"" assistant coach Mark Harvey said.
Harvey made no excuses for the loss despite Essendon having seven key players out. ""Port had a number of players out as well. They lost Primus and Wakelin before the match and Francou was also out. So we can’t make excuses for that sort of performance.
""Pickett kicked those two goals in the last two minutes of the first quarter and it was a landslide after that. It was an avalanche of goals to Power and we just couldn’t stop them. We matched them in the stoppage department but their efficiency by foot and also their run and handball gave us no chance of getting back into the game at any stage,"" Harvey said.
Despite the 96-point deficit, Harvey believed there was still a handful of positives to come out of the game. He said that former Carlton duo Matthew Allan and Justin Murphy were solid in their first outing for the club.
""Whenever Matthew Allan was in the ruck we were winning that area of the game. Murphy played on the wing for the majority of the game and really won his wing. It was one of the few positions we won on the ground. That was a real plus for the team and hopefully we can win a game where they can also play well.""
In spite of having limited opportunities Matthew Lloyd was another player who didn’t lower his colours. He finished with four goals, which was half of the team’s scoreline.
""We were limited in the way we kept brining the ball into Matthew – it was either too slow or it was being cut-off. We need other players to start contributing a lot more than they have been on the scoreboard and not just rely on Matthew,"" he said.
Harvey said the team has a lot of work to do to turn last week’s result around and beat St.Kilda this Saturday night. The injection of experienced players such as Mark McVeigh, Dustin Fletcher, Dean Solomon, Mark Johnson and Mark Mercuri are likely to greatly help the Bombers’ cause.
