Robert Shaw says team balance was a key reason Essendon fell away late in the match against West Coast.

The Bombers lost Patrick Ambrose before the game with a back complaint and their problems were exacerbated when Mark Jamar and Matthew Leuenberger went down with injury during the match.

“Losing the improved Ambrose created a match-up issue,” Shaw said.

“Matt Dea has been terrific but he’s played in a flanking position – I was hoping he would play on LeCras, with Ambrose to go to Darling and Hartley to Kennedy.

“That threw out the balance of the team and I guess they would have considered bringing McKernan in and moving the versatile Brown back to play that role.

“But they continued with the preferred forward structure and that allowed Joe Daniher to play a very good game.

“Where we did go wrong was losing the two ruckmen and having to throw Daniher into the ruck.  It unbalanced the forward line and despite our really encouraging play around stoppages … we weren’t able to plug the holes created because of Ambrose being out and then the ruck situation.”

The Bombers outscored the Eagles four goals to one in the first quarter on the back of some dominance around the clearances (14-6). 

“Obviously the start was fantastic again and to lead at quarter time ticked the boxes of taking the crowd out of it,” Shaw said.

“I thought they played a very good brand of football, were dominant around the clearances and were direct and quick into the forward line and made West Coast look ordinary at times.”

The Bombers maintained the edge around the clearances (44-38) throughout the match despite the Eagles increasing dominance on the scoreboard.