In the eyes of Dean Solomon, it’s Essendon’s ‘lack of predictability’ to each other that has shot them in the foot over the last fortnight. 

The Dons’ intensity without the ball in last week’s second half against Geelong was worlds apart from a dismal second quarter, but Solomon remains steadfast his young side will be able to channel their best more consistently as the games together roll on. 

That will remain the focus heading into the final fortnight, where the Bombers have an opportunity to close out their campaign in back-to-back home encounters with Sydney (Sunday’s Community Game at the MCG) and Port Adelaide (Marvel Stadium).  

Solomon on… sticking to structure

I thought our second half was much better (last Saturday) but as I’ve said over the last couple of weeks, we're kind of our own worst enemy at the moment. 

Just with our compliance and pressure, that's what we've reviewed really clearly this week again. We’re probably just inconsistent in the way that we execute our structure and comply to the game plan. 

At times we're not predictable to each other, we’ll continue to look at ourselves more so than the opposition. We're always going to respect the opposition in what they do but we're just wrestling with ourselves at the moment and we'll continue to look at that for the next two games. 

We've got to do it consistently for longer periods of time and at the moment we're not. When we go away from that, the opposition just go ‘whack’ and it's hard to wrestle that back. 

Solomon on… the challenge of Sydney 

We've got to obviously execute a higher-level brand of football. Sydney are second on the ladder, coming to the MCG where they've got a finals campaign coming up and a lot of that will be played there, so they'll be looking to play their best brand of footy. 

It’s an opportunity for us. We keep talking about our young group, we've got eight teenagers in the side at the moment and another four outside of that who were in their first, second or third year of football.

This is great exposure, they get to play and learn from some of the best. But we're looking to be really competitive against the Swans, and then obviously we've got Port in the last game, but we'll deal with that when we get there. 

Solomon on… media speculation about a ‘rift’ with Mark McVeigh 

I feel like it's a bit of an episode of Home and Away, to be honest. There’s nothing there.

We don't know where they’ve come from, obviously rumours. He’s been of my best mates since the age of 15, ‘Hirdy’ since the age of 17. 

I'm not sure whether the talks of me potentially not being here next year stimulated a bit of that conversation, we're not sure. 

There are four candidates, so it's hard to talk to just those two. It’s really important the club do the right thing, go through a thorough process like they are and to get the right person for this job. 

Whoever gets the job, it's a really exciting opportunity and we all want to see this club heading the right direction. The reality is a new coach will be coming in two weeks’ time. They're going to want to bring in some staff to work alongside for at least two-to-three years as that continuity is really important. 

I'll sit down with that senior coach, whoever that is, and we can work through it. 

Solomon on… turning the tide 

We are where we are at the moment and a lot of people surrounding the football club are really frustrated. We want to be great and we want to be great really quickly, we all understand that.  

This is a big job and it's an exciting, exciting challenge. There’s a great young group here and I think we've got to shift our focus onto what the future looks like with them - they're going to take a little bit of time to get it going and start heading north but I think I think things are going to be fine.

We just need to continue to go with the strategy that we put in place a couple of years ago - we'll go to the draft with a strong hand and we'll bring in some mature-age talent that can support our youth and show them day-to-day habits on how to prep and play at the elite level.

People don't want to be patient in this game but that's the reality of where we're at. Matty Rosa has got a really good handle on his list and he'll make the right calls. 

I feel like it's already started to head in the right direction. Farrow and Sharp just signed long-term deals, Caddy signed long-term four or five weeks ago, Durham early in the year. 

We have exposed youth to this team in the last five weeks to be the youngest ‘age and experience’ team in the competition. That's on purpose. 

Another pre-season under Mat Inness (coming up), I reckon another one or two for this young group is really important. I can't put an absolute dot on it, but in the next 40-to-60 games, I think we'll find this team and this football club are heading the right direction at a rapid rate.