ADELAIDE struggled with being the competition's "guinea pigs" as the AFL unveiled its contentious sliding rule for the first time in the home and away season.
In slippery conditions during the season-opener at AAMI Stadium, the Crows battled with the rule, giving away several free kicks when making contact to Bombers players below their knees.
One of Alwyn Davey's three third-quarter goals in Essendon's 35-point win came as a direct result of a free kick for sliding, when Crows defender Brent Reilly attacked a ball in his defensive pocket.
Crows coach Brenton Sanderson lamented his side's inability to react to the new rule when rain came over the game.
"It didn't look like we handled the new sliding rule that well. When the rain came and the ball was on the ground we were sliding in and obviously with the new rule now you can't go to ground," Sanderson said post-match.
"We gave away a couple of free kicks which wouldn't have been free kicks in 2012. But that's the new rule and we accept that's the new rule.
"Essendon didn't go to ground and we kept sliding in and giving away unnecessary free kicks."
The Crows will spend time reviewing the free kicks that were paid against them and educating their players on how to handle the new interpretation.
But Sanderson said it would be difficult to change the way his players were conditioned.
"Everyone now across the competition gets a first look at the guinea pigs. Essendon and the Crows will be the benchmark now for what that rule is and it will be scrutinised pretty heavily throughout the media this week," he said.
"You can't change instinct, you have to teach a better method. We'll have to practise that. We've done a lot of tackling practice over summer, but obviously not enough."
Essendon counterpart James Hird said his club had worked hard in the past two weeks to refine how players should approach a contest.
"We spent a bit of time since our last NAB Cup game against GWS practising some things, not to get a free kick but to avoid a free kick," he said.
"[That's in] the way we tackle, [and] the way we go for the ball and that's certainly helped us.
"It will take a while for players to get used to it and also for umpires to get used to it. I thought it was handled very well today by the players and the umpires, but that's probably a biased point of view because we won."
Follow AFL website reporter Callum Twomey on Twitter at @AFL_CalTwomey.
