Essendon coach Brad Scott admits his midfield was given a “wake-up call” by Port Adelaide’s high-powered engine room as he counts the price of a worsening damage record.
Archie Perkins grew to become the most recent Bomber to go down with a soft-tissue damage when he damage a hamstring through the 69-point shellacking from the Power at Adelaide Oval on Friday night time.
The blow got here as Essendon had been taught a lesson by Port’s star pair Connor Rozee and Jason Horne-Francis, who spearheaded a crushing 19-6 tally in centre-bounce clearances.
The Power’s dominance in that essential space got here regardless of the Bombers profitable hit-outs (34-23) and set the tone in a one-sided affair.
“In the end it’s a good wake-up call for our guys,” Scott stated after his aspect’s 17.9 (111) to six.6 (42) defeat.
“We’re only four games into the season but it’s been a strength for us.
“Sometimes, it is only a little bit of an ideal storm. Whatever we modified made it worse.
“Rozee and Horne-Francis were just totally dominant in that part of the game and around the ground.”
Scott stated the important thing now could be how Essendon (2-2) reply forward of a round-five conflict with the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.
“Part of the message is Port right now are where we want to be and they gave us a good lesson tonight,” Scott stated.
“You can be clearly very frustrated and disappointed but you’ve got to learn your lesson and progress from there.
“There’s components of our video games which have been a energy in our first three video games and it clearly wasn’t tonight.”
Perkins appears set to miss multiple weeks, joining former best-and-fairest winner Jordan Ridley (quad), Matt Guelfi (calf) and Zach Reid (hamstring) on the list of players sidelined by soft-tissue injuries.
Scott confirmed Ridley has had another setback and won’t be available next week as planned, while Guelfi is not recovering as quickly as expected.
Star midfielder Darcy Parish also missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury and Scott admits the trend is cause for concern.
“We’ll simply need to go and be actually diligent in assessing what’s taking place there,” he stated.
“We run a very thorough medical program however in the meanwhile we’re being damage by some soft-tissue accidents.
“In a full-contact sport there are some unavoidable injuries but you’d like to think the soft-tissue ones are the ones you can do something about.
“We’ll have to go to work on that.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
