We were lucky to be playing Essendon. We didn’t defend well, rather, they butchered their attacks. We were loose, couldn’t kill high entries and regularly turned over the ball. A decent team would have made our backs look like traffic cones.
The saving grace is that we were playing our 2nds. Not that it will help for a few weeks but if, Hamling, Pearce, Ryan, Chapman, Hughes, Conca and Young were fit, today’s backline (with the exception of perhaps Cox) wouldn’t be out there. It would be a different team. That doesn’t help us now, but it does go someway to explaining out situation.