Essendon assistant coach, Ashley Prescott, said tonight’s clash with Collingwood has given the Bombers a taste of the quality of team they need to beat if they are to fulfil their hopes of playing finals football.

Prescott said the slick Collingwood outfit were able to seal the clash by 35-points due to their ability to slow the game and push numbers behind the ball.

“We will take out of that a good lesson on how a top four team plays,” Prescott said.

“Collingwood are a seriously good side and I think you are always learning off the good teams in the competition.

Poor delivery into the Bombers forward 50m made goals hard to come by. Collingwood meanwhile had no trouble with a number of options in attack.

“Early in the game when you don’t make the most of your chances going forward it gives the opposition to take the ball back and it can be quite deflating,” Prescott said.

“Early in the first quarter we didn’t make the most of our inside 50ms and for most of the night, we couldn’t quite convert – whether it was shooting on goal or that last inside 50m. When we made those mistakes they were able to transfer the ball over and score goals.”

Prescott said the hard running and defensive pressure shown by Collingwood is something Essendon need to replicate if they are to improve their hopes of playing finals football.

“We certainly were taught a lesson tonight in hard running and their pressure was really strong all night,” Prescott said.

 “I think our skill level and our kicking really hurt us today. I think then we went into our shells a little bit and stopped taking risks and that can sometimes happen when you are not hitting your targets.”