Brad Scott says Essendon produced “numbers I’ve never seen in a loss” after his side fell to the Blues on Sunday night despite dominating territory.
The Bombers were brave in the King’s Birthday Eve clash in front of just under 90,000 fans at the MCG – and had ascendancy in several areas – but were ultimately outclassed by arch rival Carlton in a 26-point loss to slide down to third place.
It included Scott’s side controlling inside 50s (60-41), however the Blues were much more efficient in their forward half – converting 15.6 in front of goal to Essendon’s 9.16.
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Speaking after the loss, which saw Carlton jump Essendon in second place on the ladder, Scott admitted it was “disappointing” his team couldn’t capitalise on its territory dominance.
“Clearly Carlton deserves its win, but I thought our guys laid the foundation to give ourselves an opportunity, to not necessarily dominate part the game, but we certainly dominated parts without converting on the scoreboard,” Scott said.
“You don’t need me to reel off all the stats, you can look at those yourself, but some of the numbers I’ve never seen in a loss.
“But that’s on us, that’s two weeks in a row we’ve been really poor at converting our opportunities forward of centre. We’ve got a lot of work to do on that.
“But I sit here at roughly the mid-point of the season thinking the foundation of what we’re doing is something to build on.”
Scott said the Bombers would “look back in fair bit of frustration” in their inability to connect inside 50 (25 shots from 60 entries to Carlton’s 21 shots from 41 entries) as “something that has flipped” for the club.
“We were very, very good at that and probably would’ve liked a bit more supply. Now we’ve flipped the script, we’re getting ample supply and not connecting,” he said.
The loss came despite several Blues stars being down on their brilliant best form including Patrick Cripps (19 disposals) and Sam Walsh (22 touches) as well as twin tower forwards Charlie Curnow (two goals) and Harry McKay (one goal) as Essendon got plenty right on the night.
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“It’s hard to say we’re happy because never at any stage did we assert dominance in the contest,” Scott said.
“We focus really heavily on our processes to give ourselves an opportunity to score.
“Every time we came at them, to their credit, they responded and were clean and efficient going forward.
“A lot of the plans we went into the game with worked, but it counts for nought now.”
It marked the Bombers’ second-straight defeat as they head into their mid-season bye at 8-1-4 in what’s been a promising year in Scott’s second at the helm.
The Essendon coach believes his side would take valuable experience out of Sunday’s night game played under finals-like heat as Essendon hopes to feature in the post-season for the first time since 2021.
“We’re just so fortunate to play in big games and we’ve put ourselves in a position we’re our supporters are coming out so support us because there’s something worth supporting,” Scott said.
“The atmosphere tonight was electric outside of it being June and not September, it felt like that (a final).
“It’s great practice to play in those games to see how your system and personnel holds up under pressure.
“You like to think you only get better from those experiences.”
Scott didn’t have an update on Will Setterfield (knee), saying the club simply had to activate its sub so made the call to remove him from the game in the fourth quarter.
Source Agencies
