Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of really good attributes, Liam \u2013 kicking is certainly one of them,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a beautiful kick, accurate kick, penetrating kick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a very strong suspicion that he\u2019d find a way to hit the scoreboard because he has at every level he\u2019s played at.\u201d<\/p>\n
May and Blakiston have provided a strong presence up forward and down back respectively since entering the line-up, while Smartt was also lively against the Giants in just his second game.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bit like Liam, he\u2019s a really powerful kick,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a really likeable young man but he\u2019s a powerful, aggressive player and we picked him in the mid-season draft … because he\u2019s someone who loves the contest and loves competing and loves pressuring and I think he\u2019s got a lot of attributes of some of the modern day mid forwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s versatile, powerful, good runner, good kick, so the attributes are there.\u201d<\/p>\n
How many Dons stay for their next flag? | 01:00<\/p>\n
However, it wasn\u2019t lost on Scott how hard it was to find synergy in a forward line that features so many new faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 50 per cent of your forward line were playing in the state league, and weren\u2019t even on your list, six weeks ago, it\u2019s a challenge to build connection,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge to build connection with a young forward line over one or two pre-seasons \u2013 we\u2019re trying to do it in a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essendon had 17 players unavailable on Thursday night, including half of their best 22, and the personnel crisis doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s going to improve too much between now and the end of the season. But Scott was determined for his team to not dwell on that sizeable negative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually want to rise to the challenge and be a no-excuse football club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pies looking after ‘sore’ Nick Daicos | 02:57<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d like to have better availability, but we field 23 fit players every week and we give opportunity to guys who deserve it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s challenges within that but what we can demand is effort, intent and the way that we compete and that largely tonight was very good against a very good opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Bomber Jake Stringer returned to haunt his old club with a pivotal performance that saw him register 18 disposals (11 contested), six marks, 314 metres gained, eight score involvements and three goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cJake did what Jake does. He\u2019s an impact player and I think when his team\u2019s playing well he can finish as well as anyone,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite what people might think … I\u2019m very pleased for him. He wanted to prolong his career, we\u2019re going a different direction, I see the result there as a win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a season that has been decimated by injury, Essendon coach Brad Scott said one of the biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,1810,1813,64,63,55,639,696,1818,1821,1816,1809,1823,1811,1815,1814,1817,1825,1824,1812,1822,668,1819,1820,85],"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-aggressive-player","tag-ankle-injury","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brad-scott","tag-david-king","tag-final-player","tag-impact-player","tag-injury-crisis","tag-jack-riewoldt","tag-liam-mcmahon","tag-likeable-young-man","tag-lovely-goal","tag-mid-season-draft","tag-mid-season-recruits","tag-no-excuse-football-club","tag-personnel-crisis","tag-pivotal-performance","tag-press-conference","tag-ronny-lerner","tag-score-involvements","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}