Full match coverage and stats<\/a><\/p>\nEssendon trailed by 54 points at half time, before a four-goal-to-nil third term challenged the ladder-leading Dogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some things to be pleased about. I think the most pleasing thing is it would have been easy for our players to get a bit of dejected and flat,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the response after half-time, after we changed some things, I thought (was) led by Zach Merrett, with his pressure around the ball. The third quarter started to look like we wanted (it) to look from the start of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merrett went into the main break with zero tackles to his name, but finished with a game-high seven, exemplifying his club\u2019s shift in defensive tenacity throughout the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a spray or anything (to) Zach, it was just, you know, let\u2019s get back to what we know we can be with the whole team in general,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
What is important for Scott now is to see that style of footy grow, after being \u201cjumped\u201d to start the clash with the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Our) pressure was non-existent in the first two rounds of the year, that has looked very different in the last two weeks. Execution is still a work in progress, but at least it was better tonight,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
Young defender Zach Reid failed to finish the game, with a hamstring niggle arising in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The degree of concern), it\u2019s low, it\u2019s low, but there\u2019s no such thing as low with \u2018Reidy\u2019, really. I mean, he wanted to start the last quarter, but it\u2019s the thing these days, he was aware of his hamstring,\u201d Scott said with a wry smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get a definitive answer out of the medical guys because with \u2018Reidy\u2019 there\u2019s an extra layer of concern there. So, he wanted to start, but I took it out of his hands just given his history. I wasn\u2019t prepared to take the risk, but we\u2019ll get it checked and hopefully he\u2019s right, and I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winning coach Luke Beveridge wasn\u2019t without his own injury concerns, despite his side\u2019s 4-0 start to the season.<\/p>\n
Ruck Tim English went down with a right knee issue, and dynamic forward Arty Jones was felled by a hamstring following a positive start. The pair\u2019s injuries compounded the loss of star midfielder Ed Richards before the siren to a knee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the muck-around-type warm up, where the boys go out and have a bit of a kick around\u2026 (Richards) just felt something in his knee, and even in the meeting that I take, the briefing before the game, I asked him how he was and he seemed pretty optimistic that he\u2019s going to be okay,\u201d Beveridge explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, he went out, tried to warm up with the group, or just before the group, and it was no good. So, we don\u2019t know the extent of it. We\u2019ve got a case study with one of our players having something similar, where he kept playing beyond the week, but we think it\u2019s minor whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club will send the trio for scans to determine the severity of their respective injuries ahead of its Gather Round clash with Hawthorn on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Defender Rory Lobb also came from the field late after \u201che just landed on some stops\u201d, but Beveridge is unconcerned about his availability for the match.<\/p>\n
He did, however, bemoan his side\u2019s form despite the win, even before the injuries forced the magnets to shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we were playing overly well at that point in time anyway\u2026 Under pressure, we didn\u2019t handle it too well at times. We fumbled, we coughed it up, we missed open field targets too many times in a game where the conditions seemed perfect,\u201d Beveridge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zach Merrett looks dejected after a loss during round four, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos\/Getty Images THERE was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-587514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587514","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=587514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}