Essendon midfielder David Zaharakis has implored his side to become more consistent in the wake of Sunday’s one point loss to Melbourne.

Zaharakis did all he could to lift his team over the line in the see-sawing affair at with two goals in the last five minutes putting the Bombers in front with just two minutes remaining.

A goal with 19 seconds remaining for the Demons snatched the win from the Dons grasp.

“We let sides back in the game and don’t shut sides down then build on our lead,” Zaharakis said.

“We go away from the things that build us that lead and it allows the opposition back into the game.”

Essendon led the inside 50 count 38-11 in the first half and were well up at the end of the match (69-36).

Zaharakis said the team simply did not use the ball well enough going forward.

“We just have to keep our attacking ball use going as we did in that first half to build us that lead,” he said.

“We start to play as individuals, we don’t move the ball as a team, we start going safe as we have been and so that is what we have to keep working on.

“It is just that ball movement through the middle, linking up as a team ahead of our last kick inside 50 and it seems that is what we are going away from.”

The 24-year-old said there were a number of factors to improved ball movement.

“We spoke a lot about our last kick inside 50 and that is a lot of what is hurting us at the moment,” Zaharakis said.

“It is a combination of the mids putting the ball on the forwards heads and the forwards not moving properly so it is a combination of things.

“Our goal kicking is something else we need to work on, we missed five or six from 30 metres out directly in front which is just inexcusable.”

Zaharakis refused to buy into speculation the issuing of 34 show cause notices to players during the week had any bearing on the team’s performance.

“We hate that people use it as an excuse because us as footy players do not use it as an excuse,” he said.

“For the three or four hours that you are here it is the most fun part of the week where all you think about is playing footy.

“I thought we came out in the first quarter and we were able to show that we were ready for a game and then we went away from it in the third quarter.”

“The only people that actually speak about it is the media really.”

“When we are at the footy club and when we go out to training we don’t think about it at all.”