Essendon has struggled to get its best side on the park for much of the season and that injury situation worsened on the weekend with Courtenay Dempsey, Henry Slattery, David Hille and Dustin Fletcher injured against Adelaide. One man you don’t need to tell about the implications of such a long injury list is Bendigo coach Adrian Hickmott.

Bendigo was on the receiving end of a 155-point thumping at the hands of the top-of-the-table Williamstown last weekend. The Bombers managed just one goal for the game. But it was one goal more than the Bendigo reserves’ side which scored just two points in its 239-point loss to Williamstown.

“You would certainly hope we have better luck with injuries next season and we need to compliment that with some solid recruiting,” Hickmott said.

“We will be very active during the off season when it comes to recruiting. We are already looking at options and having discussions with players.”

“Essendon has had a difficult run with injuries and clearly that flows through and impacts on the side we are able to put on the park.

“I would not question the effort of the players we are putting out there but we are short on quality. You would like to think you would normally have 10 – 12 primary listed players out there – on the weekend we had just four.”

Bendigo sits in second-last place on the ladder with five wins from 18 games. The reserves are yet to win a match this season.