Overuse of the ball and kicking down the line too often were costly in the Bombers loss to the Blues, according to Scott Lucas.

The side’s first defeat of the season came on a wet day at the MCG and while Lucas agreed with Coach John Worsfold that the effort was there, too many handballs were part of the Dons undoing.

“Their effort was really good, the pressure they applied was good with close to 100 tackles but what I found they did do was overuse the handball too much in those conditions,” Lucas said.

“We saw Carlton kick the ball more, get more yardage out of their possessions therefore they had over 20 more inside 50’s. 

“The Bombers overuse of the handball in close - [combined] with Carlton’s great pressure - prevented entries that they really needed in those conditions to get a score on the board.”

Carlton edged the Bombers narrowly in the disposal count (351-349) but the kicking differential (249-216 Carlton’s way) and handball numbers (102-133 Essendon’s way) were more clear-cut.

When the Bombers did have possession, Lucas said they needed to be more unpredictable. 

“I think too often they went long down line which made things very difficult for your forwards in those conditions,” he said.

“The first two weeks they were very good at coming off the line, getting width on the outside and being really able to create some space for our runners.

“We weren’t able to do that – the conditions did play a fair part in that – but I still would have liked to have seen more dare in their ball movement.”