Essendon’s brief taste of September action ended all too quickly tonight as an in-form Adelaide sealed a 96-point win at AAMI stadium.

While the Crows’ lesson may have been harsh, Essendon assistant coach believes it was a reality check the Bombers needed in order to understand the quality of football that finals teams need to produce on a consistent basis.

“It is a good lesson for our young list. There is a lot of improvement needed from a lot of blokes out there tonight and we can learn from that,” O’Donnell said.

“We have had a good year of development but in order to take the next step we have a lot of hard work and hard learning to do over pre-season.”

The Bombers were competitive early, matching Adelaide’s attack in the first term and holding them off for much of the second quarter.

However the Crows’ hungry attack on the football and willingness to put their bodies on the line to win the ball around stoppages was too good for the Bombers and they used it to embarrass Essendon on the scoreboard.
Click here to read the quarter by quarter scores.
“We started the game alright and were able to stay with Adelaide in the first term,” O’Donnell said.

“We had a poor second quarter and it just got worse from there. We got our hands on the ball a bit but our disposal by hand was appalling.

“We missed handball targets and kicking targets and weren’t able to kick the goals when we needed to.

“Adelaide just were too good for us tonight and they used it to their advantage and they ended up slaughtering us.”

O’Donnell said he was encouraged by the performance of Nathan Lovett-Murray throughout tonight’s match and was pleased with his ability to stay competitive even when the game was well beyond doubt.

“Nathan Lovett-Murray tried hard all day. He was in there running hard at all times and was trying to get it going our way. He should be really proud of his last month of football because he has done really well,” he said.