See what Essendon coach John Worsfold had to say following his side’s 82-point loss to the Crows on Sunday.

On Essendon’s promising start…

“In the first quarter I thought we really took it up to them, we really made them work hard.

“They capitalised on a couple of unforced errors and then just went straight forward and scored, but otherwise I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was about even in the first quarter for the way the game was going.”

On the Bombers’ competitive spirit despite Adelaide’s growing dominance the longer the game wore on…

“They really put their foot on it (in the second and third quarters) and we couldn’t match them but we fought on I thought, I was really pleased with the way the players stuck to the task.

“Don’t underestimate that the guys are feeling it, they feel flat and they feel disappointed but the challenge is that they don’t want to give up, they want to try their best throughout the course of whole games.”

Match report: Crows demolish Dons

On matching up against Adelaide’s even line-up…

“You look at Adelaide’s line-up and it’s hard to find a spot on the ground that you think you’re actually better than them.

“There’s probably not one match-up that you think you’re better. There’s a couple that we think can be even, so that’s a real challenge for us at the moment.

“Players are playing on really good players and learning how far they’re off the mark in terms of getting to that level.”

On how his young side is managing fatigue…

“There’s no doubt that some of the young players that have had a massive workload this year are feeling the pinch and some of the players that came in with no pre-season are really feeling the pinch.

“Fatigue does lead to more errors, that’s in any sport. As you get tired, your decision making is not as sharp.

“Young players, especially at this stage of the year, fatigue more than the elite, experienced players, so you do have younger players who have a drop-off or make more errors often at this stage of the year.”

On the lack of AFL experience compared to the Crows…

“Potentially we might have had a total games played of 80, or something similar, maybe 90, inside our forward line at the start of the game. I think Adelaide probably had four players with more games than that alone.

“We’re young and we’re not that experienced in terms of games played, so we do make errors and we make a lot more than most teams.”