Essendon has the tough task of making the finals with only five wins on the board at the half-way mark of the season. The Bombers lost the opportunity to post their sixth victory of the year this evening at The Dome when a spirited Kangaroos outfit outclassed them in the final quarter to win by eight-points. Speaking after the match assistant coach Robert Shaw was bitterly disappointed with the performance. “It is really disappointing because we felt we had our chances to win the game,” Shaw said.

Essendon went into the final break with a three point advantage and extended that lead further when Mark McVeigh kicked the opening goal. However, it was all Kangaroos after this point and they kicked the final three goals. “We missed a couple of goals we should have kicked and our decision making when the pressure was on in the final term wasn’t good enough,” Shaw said.

“You have to hit targets to win games of AFL football and too often we didn’t do that. We just have to regroup over the next two weeks and just get better in a number of areas.”