The Bombers watched a 51-point lead disintegrate to 25-points midway through the final quarter. Although Essendon never really looked in danger of losing the match, there still were some heart-stopping moments in the final term. Sheedy admitted the blast he gave them was as hard as he has been on the team after a win. ""But they were due for it. From the point of view of that they didn’t work on what we have been practicing,"" he said.
""I thought we just over-used the ball at times and when we had the opportunity to get it into (Matthew) Lloyd we didn’t. You only had to look at our inside 50s in the last half compared to theirs.""
Sheedy did concede that he did rest senior players on the bench in the second half and this also a reason for Essendon’s drop in intensity. ""I am trying to leave some of our younger players on the ground and give players that have been on the bench as much time on the ground because some of them need game time. I am talking about Joe Misiti, David Hille and Marc Bullen and those sort of players.""
The Bombers face Hawthorn this week, who will be without their skipper Shane Crawford and will be keen to rebound after a 86-point loss. Crawford broke his hand in two places in Saturday’s match against Adelaide and is likely to miss the remainder of the season.
""Hawthorn have probably had a few more injuries than us over the past month. When you get bad injuries that has happened to them, like on the weekend, it is naturally very hurtful. But knowing Hawthorn, with their backs to the wall, they will be coming back strongly – that is the way their club is.""
