Twelve senior-listed featured in Essendon's 75-point VFL loss to Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Friday.

VFL coach Leigh Tudor has assessed each player below.

The VFL Bombers will face Sandringham from 2pm at Trevor Barker Beach Oval on Sunday, with broadcast details yet to be confirmed.

Dylan Clarke

Stats: 27 disposals, two marks, seven tackles 

“Really good to see him back. The whole club's really excited to have him back out there. He’s worked really hard in his rehab over a long time. It was really good to see him come out and he played really well. He came on in the second quarter and he ended up with 18 contested possessions. He really helped us, especially in the second half.”

Brandon Zerk-Thatcher

Stats: 20 disposals, seven marks, six tackles 

“I thought Brandon was good on the weekend. He played on Josh Jenkins for most of the day who’s one of the top three goalkickers in the VFL and he didn't score a goal on [Zerk-Thatcher]. I thought his contests were really good, he won a lot of one-on-one battles and I thought it was a good game.”

Martin Gleeson

Stats: 19 disposals, six marks, three tackles

“Marty was good again for us. He sets us up really well, he’s a great organiser for the VFL and you just expect him to do it every week and he does at VFL level, so he was solid again.” 

Nick Bryan

Stats: 17 disposals, one goal, three marks, three tackles, 29 hitouts 

“Nick had a really good contest. The Geelong ruckman is a really good ruckman. He took a few nice marks deep in defence to help us. He got forward and kicked a goal for us as a ruckman as well, so he’s working really hard and he just keeps getting better.” 

Sam Durham

Stats: 17 disposals, six marks, four tackles 

“Sam played on the wing. It was his second game on the wing for us and he’s learning our running patterns and our structures which is all new to him, but he’s really keen to learn and he really tries to do the team things. The players really like playing with him because he’s hard at the ball, he’s quite a good user of the ball. He's come in and he’s impressed and he looks like he has a lot of AFL attributes."

Zach Reid

Stats: 17 disposals, three marks 

“'Reidy' was again coming back from injury. He’s just getting his fitness back and he’s started to use the ball a lot better and get more confident with his ball use. There were lots of opportunities for him to defend on the weekend - Geelong had a lot of inside 50s and Zach held his own.”

Lachlan Johnson

Stats: 13 disposals, two marks, three tackles

“Lachie was good in the contest. He probably got too high as a forward and probably didn't get back to the forward line as much as we would’ve liked, but in the contest he was good again.”

Ned Cahill

Stats: 12 disposals, one goal, one mark, two tackles

“Similar to Lachie, all our small forwards probably got too high and we just let Geelong dictate a little bit in the backline. Ned was really smart in around the contest when he was there. He’s quite a smart forward."

Josh Eyre

Stats: 12 disposals, one mark, one tackle

“Josh had another go at the backline for us this week. His starting positions were really good, there was just a few little one-on-one craft and body-on-body things that he needs to learn and get better at. It was a great opportunity for him. We actually needed to change things up at half-time - we needed some presence down the line and in our forward line, so we moved him to centre half-forward in the third quarter and he actually presented really well. We needed some aerial contests and he did that for us, so another good game.”

David Zaharakis

Stats: 12 tackles, four marks, six tackles

“He got through the game, but he was a little bit sore during the game so hopefully he’ll be right for this week.”

Cian McBride

Stats: 11 disposals, three marks, six tackles, 12 hitouts 

“Cian had another game as a forward and again he’s learning our running patterns and he’s actually probably too tough for his own good. He got a couple of big hits and he just keeps battling on for us so I really like how brave he is. Again this is only his second game as a forward so he's got some things to learn, but I really like the way he competes.”

Tom Hird

Stats: 10 disposals, two marks, four tackles 

“Similarly to 'Johno' (Johnson) and Ned, he was a bit too high as a forward which hurt us when we were in attack. It was another good opportunity for him to play forward. It’s only probably his second or third game as a forward, so again he’s still learning our running patterns and he’ll get better.”