Essendon returned to Windy Hill for their second home game of the season, where the Cats proved too strong for the young side, suffering a 31-point defeat. 

Senior Coach Natalie Wood commends Geelong on their dominant performance and recognises some key takeaways that the Dons can implement into next week’s clash against the Saints. 

Wood on… overall performance from the young group

We struggled to get our hands on the footy in the first quarter. We had every intent to come out and start the game strongly.

I think Geelong took the first step with that and we were on the back foot. Contested possession, uncontested possession, time in forward half, they just really dominated.

I think credit to our team; we’re a very young team. We've got a lot of players that have made their debut in the last three weeks, so it's real credit to the group with their mentality and approach.

We got back on top of contested possessions and clearances in that second quarter, but we didn't get any scoreboard pressure off it.

I thought we had some pretty good passages, and made the game look a little bit how we wanted it to, then we turned over and Geelong got to the other end and hit the scoreboard.

Credit to Geelong, I’m really disappointed that we didn't win, but with our group and where we we’re at, there's still some positives we can take away from today.

Wood on… Steph Wales’ return

(Wales) worked so diligently, really credit to her.

(Wales) was hustling our medical team and our high-performance team the whole time (during rehab), and when you've got players like that that are willing to just work and do everything right, it's really easy as a club to provide the right resources for them because they're just so willing and able. It’s been a fantastic to turnaround to be available for round four.

I thought Matilda Dyke and Courtney Murphy have been terrific for us in the ruck, all three provide different options and different strengths around the ground.

It's terrific to have Steph back out there and she plays in a different way, so we need to learn what it's like to play with Steph out there, not just in the stoppage perspective, but around the ground.

Wood on… Chloe Adams

Chloe's a terrific contest player. She's one of the players that really puts her head over the football. We've trained her forward a fair bit and at the minute she's playing down back for us.

Chloe’s contest work is her strength. She's hungry to be as good as she can be, so she's been working really hard on her game and taking steps forward.

Wood on… Steph Cain and Brooke Walker

They'll get scanned and we'll have a look at them. We're pretty depleted with injuries at the minute, obviously with Bannister out, Sophie Van De Heuvel and Maddi Gay.

We’re hopeful that those two players aren't out for too long, but on the flip side, it was great for us to of had another debutant in Sophie Strong today. I thought she brought a really good amount of pressure up forward.