Essendon coach Brad Scott was rapt with the way his backline responded on Thursday night during their 12-point win against Port Adelaide after their horrific showing against the Crows last week.
The likes of Ben McKay and Zach Reid copped the full brunt of the criticism for the Bombers’ concession of 161 points to Adelaide on Saturday.
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But, aided by the return of star backman Jordan Ridley, they combined to restrict the Power to just 60 points, after being “hung out to dry” by their teammates in Round 2.
“Our key defenders had a really tough week last week and I thought they were outstanding tonight,” Scott said.
“It was pretty solid. The criticism’s warranted because the opposition kicked 160 points last week so I’m not interested in answering to the criticism, I focus on the facts all the time, whether you win, lose or draw, and what you’ve got to work on.
“The most pleasing thing is when you have a disappointing performance, you get to choose how you respond to it.
“You can capitulate and it’s all too hard and the pressure’s overwhelming or you can respond and I think that’s a pretty good measure of character.”
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It sounded like McKay was copping Bronx cheers from his own supporters for most of the game at Marvel Stadium, but Scott interpreted them as cheers of encouragement.
“Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but he was the leading intercept defender on the ground for the most part of the game,” Scott said.
“He was really, really important for us tonight. I think Ben McKay has got all the attributes of a really good key defender.
“The thing is with key defenders when you have breakdowns all over the ground defensively, it’s usually the last-line key defenders that get hung out to dry and we hung them out to dry last week.”
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Promising youngsters such as Isaac Kako, Nate Caddy and Saad El-Hawli all played their part in crucial moments in the final quarter to turn the tide their team’s way. Although, Kako and Caddy proved to be a tongue-twister for Scott.
“Caddo, Kakky – are we going to run with that?,” Scott smiled.
“I was going to call him Kakky. So Batman and Robin.
“I think that’s really good reinforcement of the football program but also their ability to stand up in pretty big moments so that’s pleasing.”
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Scott revealed that they went over their defensive structures with a fine-tooth comb during the week following their humbling performance against Adelaide.
“We pulled it all apart,” he said.
“The easiest thing for a coach to do is say, ‘Oh, we made skill errors, that won’t happen next week’.
“We reinforced our defensive principles … near enough is not good enough, a little bit off compounds into a lot off, and I thought the attention to detail in that part of the game was really good.
“It reinforces the work that we’re doing can turn things around pretty quickly because it did look different clearly in five days.”
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