Cam Luke

Essendon are 18th, aka last for every single category.

So defensively, their system...

And I think their desire and their intensity just simply doesn't stack up.

And in the second half yesterday, we saw it not stack up.

I honestly don't know.

I don't want to jump to a conclusion one way or the other.

It's probably always a combination of both, right?

But last year we looked at Essendon and we spoke about it a fair bit over Sunday.

Are they playing this uncontested brand of footy

to defend with the ball in hand because of their injuries.

And I was thinking to myself, I hope not.

Sorry, I was thinking to myself, I hope they are.

Because they've got so many injuries, maybe it's a subtle shift in the game style.

Let's just chip it around a little bit more than ideally we'd like to because we're down on manpower so much.

But when we get these players back...

which they have this year, and yes, they've lost a couple along the way, but for the most part, all teams get injuries.

It doesn't change the way you play the game.

They've still been way too willing for mine to kick it sideways and take uncontested marks and move the ball in a manner that's not threatening.

Now...

They've played better footy last week and certainly the week before that against Melbourne.