The Essendon of Sunday night’s opening half against Carlton is exactly the kind of Essendon that Dean Solomon wants to see for the rest of his campaign as Interim Senior Coach. 

Although a lack of polish going forward ultimately undid the Dons in a narrow five-point loss, Solomon loved his group’s tenacity at the contest and their growing sense of presence in a ‘big time’ environment.

The MCG again plays host when the Bombers and Demons pay tribute to Neale Daniher on Saturday afternoon. Solomon is pointing to the occasion as a massive one for his young side to embody the late great’s spirit. 

Solomon’s chat with the media from Thursday morning:

Solomon on… passion and spirit

I love just the passion and spirit they've been playing with the last two weeks. We continue to connect on different levels, player to player, player to staff, staff to staff. The whole group is in a good headspace.

There were areas of the (Carlton) game we liked – contest, stoppage, clearance numbers were where we wanted them to be and we felt like our layers around the contest were much better, more consistent. Team defence we’ll continue to work on, there's some improvement there. 

I think it's been a tough couple weeks, which we keep talking about, but I feel like we're coming out the other side now. 

They were just (brave in) the way they played. We were a younger group, but the way we played, we played with physicality, we played with presence, especially our younger players. 

I said it post-game, but I love the way we played the first half, it was how we wanted to look like. We felt like that third quarter and early in the fourth, we moved it safe in the way we played but hopefully in the next game or two, we see that become more consistent.

Solomon on… ball movement, Nate Caddy’s competitiveness

Just some of that ball movement stuff, especially forward of centre is something we continue to focus on, our method going inside 50 especially on slow play.

I thought Nate’s body language was quite good considering what we were doing (or not doing) forward of centre with the ball. We’ve looked at that and we’ll continue to work on it - Nate's an amazing person who’s got a massive heart and he loves his football club. 

We'll keep putting our arms around him. It's not about him in isolation, it's about all of us, of course, but we can definitely help Nate out with the way we move the ball. 

He's a good player and he's going to be a very good player at this football club for a long period of time. He's got high standards, he wants to be great and that's what we love about him, (how much he) invests himself in the club into the group. 

He always puts the team first but individually he wants to be great, and there’s no doubt we can help him in that space. 

He also created space really well and created opportunities for Ben McKay, so that can't be underestimated either.

Solomon on… McKay’s forward impact, positional tweaks

At this point in time, it’s absolutely (something we’ll persist with, having Ben forward). I think he's had a great presence up there. 

He's still learning the caper, leading patterns, where to position himself but as we said and as we've seen, he's got a good presence in the aerial contest, good hands and he's a nice set shot at goal. It makes a bit of sense to us.

We felt like it's been a positive move in the last two weeks and we'll continue to push forward with that.

We found there was enough good in (utilising Zach Merrett at half back).

Zach himself would say he probably didn't use the ball the way that he would like, to his high level as a champion of this football club. He’ll continue to be great for this club and we'd like to move him to half back and generate a bit more forward movement with the ball.  

There are a lot of little tweaks that we're making, and this is why it's taking a little bit of time to get some traction but we are seeing some positive stuff and we'll continue with that.

Solomon on… celebrating Neale 

It's a big moment for both clubs. With Neale and the man that he was, we're really proud to call him a Bomber and we want to represent him and his family in the best way possible.

Yesterday was amazing, it was a beautiful service. To see that legacy in the way that people speak about you, I don't think there's anything better than that - just what Neale’s done, the impact he's had, what he stood for as a person, his beautiful family and the way they spoke. 

Emotions flash from sadness to pride in being a part of the day. Who he was - knowing the Danihers, I’m obviously really close to Terry and wore Chris' jumper - it was just a special day. It's a sad day, but I mean, for someone that was given 27 months to live and to get 13 years out, speaks volumes to who he was. He was here for everyone else other than himself, and that selfless nature is just incredible. 

We just encourage all Melbourne and Essendon supporters to get there on Saturday. Let's pack it out for Neale and put on a good show.  

That's what we're striving to be in the back half of the year as a football club and a football team, so we take a lot from Neale. We always have, we will continue to do that, his legacy will stand forever. 

Solomon on… Sharp’s potential return, Parish’s soreness 

(Sharp is) a chance to play. He’ll get through training today and there’ll be some testing around that as well to ensure that he's at full health, 100 per cent to play 

From there, if he does pass that, we go to match committee and decide whether that’s AFL or VFL.

There’s still just a bit of knee soreness with ‘Darc’. Nothing too bad, but it's going to hinder him this weekend, so we've decided to hold him until post-bye.