An Essendon side minus some of its biggest names has gone down to Sydney by 28 points in its NAB Challenge match at Blacktown tonight.
Assistant coach Alan Richardson said there were some very positive signs despite the result and the coaching staff had been particularly pleased with a number of younger players.
Essendon had a host of senior players missing including captain Jobe Watson, David Hille, Paddy Ryder, Brent Stanton, Jason Winderlich and Dustin Fletcher. Young defenders Tayte Pears and Cale Hooker were also missing.
After a slow start, the young Essendon side won the second half which was a real positive against a Sydney side that was far closer to full strength.
“We were pleased with the young players tonight. Anthony Long did well in defence playing on Ryan O’Keefe for most of the night. It was a great experience for him and he controlled him for most of the night,” Richardson said.
“Jake Carlisle started forward and kicked a goal but we had to send him back when Tyson Slattery got hurt. He played on White and he hasn’t spent much time down back but he would have broken even.
“Kyle Hardingham was a real positive for us. He played off half back, got a lot of the footy and took an absolute hangar. He will have grown in confidence from that.
“The biggest positive for me on the night was Ben Howlett (rookie). He played a quarter against Melbourne and got about a dozen touches and tonight would have been our highest possession winner tonight. We were really pleased with his output.”
Without Ryder and Hille, much of the ruck responsibility fell onto the shoulders of Jason Laycock.
“Jason got through the game and that is a good sign given his interrupted pre-season. He took a couple of really good marks up forward and could have kicked three. He did some nice things in the ruck and had a fair bit of the ball so he had a good night,” Richardson said.
“David Zaharakis went forward and kicked three goals. Scott Gumbleton got through and worked really hard. He played forward and would have taken eight or 10 marks including a couple of contested marks so that was good for him to get a game under his belt.”
“Jay Neagle was also good, he could have kicked four goals. He hit the post twice. He presented well so that was another positive.”
On the injury front, David Myers suffered hamstring tightness while Tyson Slattery left the field with a wrist problem that will be further investigated this week.
Essendon’s final Challenge match of the pre-season is in Morewell next Saturday against Richmond starting at 3.30pm.
