TonyK
CibbuanoFinals our aim in '09: Knights
August 10th 2008 23:29
ESSENDON will be aiming to play finals football in 2009 according to coach Matthew Knights.
The Bombers blew their chance of playing finals this season after going down to West Coast by 10 points at Subiaco Oval on Sunday.
The loss leaves Essendon two wins outside the eight with three rounds remaining.
Despite the loss Knights said the club was heading in the right direction.
"We are heading in the right direction, irrelevant of today's result, but it was a disappointing one," Knights said.
"What's really pleasing is that the players and the staff are really attacking the vision of the club hard to build a team up over time and bring a group through together.
"I spoke to them about what we learned out of today, and that's the ability to play at your maximum and execute your game plan right from minute one.
"No matter who you play, or where you play, you have got to present yourself and play at your maximum and we didn't do that in the first half."
Essendon was outclassed in the middle in the first half but fought back after half time, kicking 12 goals to West Coast's seven.
"It was a quite a disappointing first half the way we played, our intensity around the ball wasn't good," Knights said.
"Their midfield really cleaned us up early in the game and gave them good opportunities.
"And when we had momentum, we did make some crucial errors during the course of the game that cost us easy goals the other way, that halted our momentum."
The victory almost guarantees West Coast won't win their first wooden spoon.
They face the bottom-placed Demons at the MCG on Saturday where another victory or draw means the Eagles will miss out on a priority pick.
But West Coast coach John Worsfold said the club was not thinking about draft picks and that they would aim to win their last three games.
The Bombers blew their chance of playing finals this season after going down to West Coast by 10 points at Subiaco Oval on Sunday.
The loss leaves Essendon two wins outside the eight with three rounds remaining.
Despite the loss Knights said the club was heading in the right direction.
"We are heading in the right direction, irrelevant of today's result, but it was a disappointing one," Knights said.
"What's really pleasing is that the players and the staff are really attacking the vision of the club hard to build a team up over time and bring a group through together.
"I spoke to them about what we learned out of today, and that's the ability to play at your maximum and execute your game plan right from minute one.
"No matter who you play, or where you play, you have got to present yourself and play at your maximum and we didn't do that in the first half."
Essendon was outclassed in the middle in the first half but fought back after half time, kicking 12 goals to West Coast's seven.
"It was a quite a disappointing first half the way we played, our intensity around the ball wasn't good," Knights said.
"Their midfield really cleaned us up early in the game and gave them good opportunities.
"And when we had momentum, we did make some crucial errors during the course of the game that cost us easy goals the other way, that halted our momentum."
The victory almost guarantees West Coast won't win their first wooden spoon.
They face the bottom-placed Demons at the MCG on Saturday where another victory or draw means the Eagles will miss out on a priority pick.
But West Coast coach John Worsfold said the club was not thinking about draft picks and that they would aim to win their last three games.
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