VFL assistant coach Paul Corrigan says the Bombers must make the most of their opportunities after a poor showing in front of goal against Sandringham.

The Bombers had more scoring shots than St. Kilda’s affiliate, but went down by 28 points at Trevor Barker Beach Oval on Sunday.

“Kicking 9.21 we certainly had our opportunities and when you look at a lot of the KPI’s after the match we were ahead in a lot of those, we just couldn’t convert on the scoreboard and put scoreboard pressure on Sandy,” Corrigan said.

“A lot of the key indicators we looked at are real positives and it means we are tracking it the right way.

“It’s more about not letting opposition sides have patches where they can get easy goals. But when you look at some of the individual performances throughout the game, we have just got to make sure we maintain consistency through the four quarters.”

Corrigan said that a few areas have been addressed in the coaches review with one eye looking forward to Saturday’s game against Werribee.

“They just got a couple of easier goals that we allowed them to, whether that’s due to the fact that some of our entries weren’t as deep and they rebounded them quickly and we weren’t set up defensively for that and they got us over the back,” Corrigan said.  

“Our pressure on the ball has got to be elite and we have to be really strong with that, we can’t afford to lapse in that area because good sides like that will whip through you.”

James Polkinghorne impressed with 30 disposals while Jason Ashby played his best game of the season picking up 25 touches.

“He (Polkinghorne) spent the majority of the game as an inside mid, he won a lot of the ball, was strong around the contest and won a number of clearances for us,” Corrigan said.

“Jace was really good, he mopped up down back, he applied pressure when he needed to and he was also taking intercept marks for us. With the inexperience we had down back, he really stood up for us. His drive off half back was really crucial to us staying in the game.”

Essendon will travel to take on Werribee at Avalon Airport Oval from 2.10pm on Saturday; the game will again be broadcast live on Channel 7.

North Melbourne’s VFL affiliate proved too strong for the Bombers wining by 18 points back in round one.

Corrigan said the lessons learnt from Sandringham would transfer to take on the Tigers.

“At times they just got on top of us for periods of the game – whether its 10 or 15 minutes within quarters,” he said.

“I think we just have to maintain that consistency through quarters, be really diligent across all areas and making sure we just don’t allow certain players to get away from us.

“Hopefully the team can bring that this week and put up a good four quarter performance against Werribee.”