Essendon Coach John Worsfold says he’s pleased with the way the side was able to improve their performance in the second half against Gold Coast.
The Bombers were on the back foot early slipping to a 29-point deficit at the first change and the Suns extended the margin to 44 points at the major break.
But after the interval, the Dons looked more composed and recorded six of the first nine inside 50’s to start the third quarter.
“When you look through the rustiness and some of the uncertainty there is some good stuff there but plenty to work on obviously,” Worsfold said.
“The first quarter we just couldn’t get out hands on the footy and work it forward.
“I think it was double the possessions, 20-5 inside 50’s … some of it came from our really poor disposals, where we were going forward and messed it up and then it was straight back and we couldn’t get it back out.
“The second half a lot of the numbers evened right up.
“To see that effort over the four quarters after they could have easily been disheartened at half time, but they stood up and really challenged the Gold Coast in that second half.
“That’s a tick for our boys that they have challenged themselves in those areas and they stood up for it today.”
Leadership Group members David Zaharakis (33 possessions, two goals), Zach Merrett (31 possessions), as well as young players Kyle Langford (13 possessions, one goal) and Darcy Parish (25 possessions) drew praise from Worsfold after his first game in charge of the Bombers.
But the new Coach knows there is a lot of work to be done on the training track.
“It was a pretty tough day but I like some of the signs we see,” Worsfold said.
“We’ll do the work but we haven’t got enough hours during the week to fix it all in one week.
“It’s a big process ongoing to get to where we want to get to this year.
“A lot of it also is just playing alongside each other.
“They’re not sure which way a teammate is going to turn or what he’s going to do in a contest – over time they’ll develop that understanding.
“We understand we’ve got a lot of work to do but in terms of winning the contested footy and inside 50’s they were pretty even in the second half so there were some positives there.”
