Young Essendon midfielder Darcy Parish says his work rate between contests allowed him to thrive in Essendon’s 23-point loss to Richmond on Saturday.

Parish was a shining light on a tough night for the Bombers, gathering career-high tallies for disposals (31), contested possessions (19) and clearances (nine), while laying five tackles and generating seven score involvements, five inside 50s, and 507 metres gained.

Many players from both sides struggled in the wet conditions as rain tumbled down throughout the contest, but Parish was right at home in an impressive display.

“It was pretty wet out there at the start and (my) ability to get from contest to contest and to be clean, it really stood out tonight,” Parish said post-game.

“It was an area that we needed to address as well.

“It was really tough conditions out there, that’s for sure.”

It was a terrific performance from the 21-year-old as he continued to benefit from greater midfield opportunities that have seen him take several steps forward in 2019.

“I’m starting to get some consistency under the belt week to week and some real confidence week to week as well.

“Hopefully I can just keep building on that for the rest of the year, it would be good.”

Parish said the side struggled to adapt to the game as Richmond controlled the vast majority of the game, setting up strongly behind the ball and drawing clear to a 43-point lead in the third term.

Essendon had only booted one goal until late in the third quarter, but it kicked off a late charge with a run of five out of six goals that drew it within three goals of the Tigers midway through the final term.

Kyle Langford booted three second-half goals on Saturday. (Image: AFL Photos)

It was simply too little, too late from the Dons and Parish lamented the side’s failure to put four good quarters together.

“We had a few structure errors throughout the whole game that we just couldn’t adapt to. I don’t know what the case was with that, but it was pretty disappointing.

“Our contest-to-contest (work) was a real let down from us tonight, we had a big focus going into the week that we would try to match Richmond in that area and we just couldn’t do that tonight, so it was a pretty disappointing night.

“It was good to finish strongly like we did, but we needed to show and see that for four quarters and we couldn’t deliver on that tonight, but hopefully we can address that throughout the week.”

The Bombers will look to get their season back on track when they take on traditional rival Carlton at the MCG next Sunday from 3:20pm.