ESSENDON'S surprise loss to Carlton "exposed" the Bombers' lack of chemistry, according to coach John Worsfold.
The club's unbeaten start to the season was ended by their rivals, who battled the dreadful conditions better and smarter to win by 15 points at the MCG on Sunday.
There had been some buzz around the Bombers' first fortnight, particularly after their round one win over Hawthorn, but Worsfold said there was "no surprises" in some of his team's struggles against the Blues.
"Our forwards still feel like they're not reading our midfield ball movement as well as they should," he said post-game.
"We've got away with a couple of wins in the first two rounds and we got exposed tonight … after eight or 10 rounds we expect our chemistry will be a lot better. And we'll get a lot better feel for how we're playing as a team."
Seven of the Bombers' 10 players returning from doping bans played against the Blues, and with a mixture of other recruits and new faces, Worsfold said the loss highlighted problems Essendon already knew existed.
"We're letting teams get it out too easily. We're defending really well in our back 50 but we're giving them way too many entries in there," he said.
"The story of our year so far is that we're having to score by rebounding the ball the length of the ground too many times. That's an area we've got to improve on."
Five talking points: Carlton v Essendon
Essendon lost the inside 50 count 60-37 on Sunday, having also given up more entries to the Hawks in round one and to the Brisbane Lions last week.
Worsfold praised returning ruckman Matthew Leuenberger (13 disposals, 46 hit-outs) for his performance after his hamstring strain, but said the club's forwards were caught behind in too many marking contests.
The Bombers also struggled to adapt as well as the Blues to the persistent heavy rain throughout the contest.
"Carlton used the ball so much better early on and created their forward-50 entries, and we were scrambling. We didn't play anywhere near the way we'd like to play. We were a bit static I would say," he said.
"We obviously talked a lot about [the conditions] and we had opportunities to just scramble the ball forward and we'd try to find a perfect little handball and cough it up.
"That was some decision-making on our behalf but it was also some really good pressure around the contest from Carlton that made our players think they couldn't get that kick away."
Essendon faces the tough task of playing the unbeaten Adelaide next week, with small forward Josh Green likely to be available after a hamstring niggle.
Forwards James Stewart and Jackson Merrett booted five goals each in a VFL practice match on Saturday, and Worsfold also nominated youngster Aaron Francis as a possible inclusion after another solid performance.
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