Assistant coach Nathan Bassett has stressed the importance of a four-quarter performance against Greater Wester Sydney on Saturday night.

Bassett said putting in a strong performance for the entire game was a key focus of this weekend’s match.

“I think it’s for us to play four quarters of strong footy,” Bassett said.

Bassett said the required effort wasn’t as consistent as the coaching staff would have liked this season.

“We’ve had some really good starts. Our starts have been good, and sometimes our second and third quarter is where we drifted away,” Bassett said.

The match up with the Giants shapes as a crucial game for the Essendon Football Club, after a great performance last week against Richmond.

But Bassett emphasised that even last week, there were periods where the team didn’t play the sort of football expected.

“Even in the second half last week, there are times where we went away from that and our football wasn’t as good as it could have been, it wasn’t as ruthless or relentless as a really good team performs each week, so that where we need to get better at,” he said.

 Bassett also spoke of the Bombers expecting a very physical contest if the Giants bring their A-game.

“Yeah, when they play well, they tackle well. In their two wins and their loss last week they had over 100 tackles a game in all those games,” Bassett said.

Also, Bassett was quick to point out the strengths in the GWS side.

“They’ve got some elite speed and obviously talent, so when they bring a strong contest, they’ve competed and beaten sides at AFL level,” he said.

GWS have made two changes to their line-up for tomorrow night’s match, with Stephen Coniglio returning and Rory Lobb making his debut for the Giants.

There were are no changes to the Essendon outfit, with Michael Hurley unfortunately not recovering from back spasms that saw him a late withdrawal from last week.