Essendon is aware of the challenge the remains to play finals in 2014 with the next month of football to decide the Bombers finals fate.

It was a sense of optimism among the team when they landed back in Melbourne on Saturday following Friday night’s loss to ladder leader Sydney.

The Bombers next month leading into September includes matches against Richmond, West Coast, Gold Coast and Carlton.

Arriving back in Melbourne on Saturday defender Cale Hooker expects his side to be up for the challenge ahead of them.

“We have to earn our spot in the finals so we need to win those games,” he said.

“I think we have seen in the last few weeks if you are off your game against any team that can come back to bite you.”

“We have to keep improving, we know what we need to do to win those games and then we need to have impact if we can make finals.”

Hooker said their was a positive feeling among the team following the game after once again giving Sydney too much of a lead early in the game.

“We took a lot of positives out of the game, obviously against a team like Sydney you can’t start like we did but we will take a lot out of that game,” Hooker said.

“We are feeling pretty positive about the back end of the year.”

“We can compete with the best teams and we have players like Jobe (Watson) and Michael Hibberd to come back in.”

“We feel we are playing a lot better game style then earlier in the year and we are feeling positive about the rest of the season.”

Hooker said the defence made no complaints when Lance Franklin was a late withdrawal from the side although they were looking forward to taking on the best forward in the competition.

David Zaharakis will have scans on a knee he injured late in the game but is expected to be fit to take on Richmond on Friday night at the MCG.