Essendon coach Brad Scott has maintained the Bombers won’t look for excuses after their seventh straight loss.
GWS Giants beat the Bombers by 48 points on Thursday night at Marvel Stadium, winning (16.8) 104 to (7.14) 56.
The Dons are currently sitting in 14th place on the ladder with six wins and 11 losses as a long injury list continues to haunt their season.
The Bombers currently have 15 players on their injury list and have matched a 34-year-old record with the number of debutants named in a season because of it.
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Scott explained in his post-match press conference after the Giants game that he and the club want to face the challenges the club currently has.
“We don't really want to dwell on the challenges or the negatives; we actually want to rise to the challenge and be a no-excuse football club,” Scott said.
“The message is the same, we’d like to have better availability, but we field 23 fit players every week, and we give opportunities to guys who deserve it.”
Scott added that the effort was commendable against a strong Giants team, but did hint that excuses could theoretically be found for the 48-point loss.
“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 that at times,”
“They got on top of us in parts of the game that if you do want to be an excuse maker, you can sort of make them, and I think you could almost say they're justified, but we don't want to go down that path.
“We want to appeal to our players to play with the effort and intent our supporters and members would expect.”
Essendon’s next task isn’t any easier as they take on the highly touted Western Bulldogs next Friday night at Marvel Stadium.