Bellchambers finished the match with 23 disposals, 8 marks and dominated the hit outs in his first match at VFL level since being omitted from the AFL side.
Development coach James Byrne said Bellchambers was clearly the Bombers best player on a disappointing afternoon.
“Tom was good, he was dominant in the ruck we just didn’t make the most of it,” Byrne said.
“He got around the ground and took some marks and he was out highest possession winner so he did pretty well.”
An explosive first quarter including two goals to David Hille had it looking like it may have been the Bombers day but it changed after quarter time as they booted just two goals for the rest of the match.
Williamstown were simply to good around the stoppages, getting their hands on more ball courtesy of Brent Prismall (27 disposals), Daniel Cross (24 disposals) and Ben Jolley (30 disposals).
It was a stagnant Essendon in the second half with the effort around the contest simply non evident.
“Being young I don’t think is an excuse, effort needs to be there and it just wasn’t there in the second half,” Byrne said.
“I thought the first half we controlled a lot of the play and we just didn’t make the most of our forward entries and they were beating us around the contest.”
“In the second half it just snowballed from there, they were getting out a lot quicker than us, beating us around the contest and their ball movement forward was a lot better than ours.”
A shining light for the Bombers was the role of Nick O’Brien who tagged Bulldogs midfielder Mitch Wallis holding him to just 14 possessions.
Byrne praised the effectiveness of O’Brien in his new role.
“Nick did really well, beating him pretty convincingly we found,” he said.
“He had more of the footy and it is good to get him in a role where we think he is going to be pushing for senior selection in terms of a shut down role.”
“With his fitness and so forth it is the perfect role for him.”
Essendon 6.9.45
Williamstown 15.11.101
GOALS: Hille 2, Lovett-Murray, Gumbleton, Dell'Olio, Hardingham.
BEST: Bellchambers, O'Brien, Firman, Fahey, Colyer, Van Unen.
