JOHN Worsfold was left pondering the merits of letting his speedy Bombers off the leash to play "random, reckless, fast footy" in the wake of Essendon's agonising one-point loss to the Swans at the SCG on Friday night.
Worsfold was surprisingly upbeat after conceding the last 20 points to lose after the siren to Sydney, highlighting his side's character and belief as strong points. However, it was the style of play the Bombers offered, despite a slippery surface, that gave Worsfold reason for contemplation.
"Overall, I thought playing fast was brilliant for us," he said.
"Obviously, that's what was going to give us a chance to beat Sydney. And that got us in front and gave us the lead. Did we keep trying to play fast? Maybe we should have just played random reckless fast footy in that last three minutes as well.
"That's one we've got to weigh up. Do we not just get numbers behind the ball and just keep playing that way? I've never seen that done, but it's an option."
Five talking points: Sydney v Essendon
Often when Essendon's fast men - including Orazio Fantasia, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Travis Colyer and Conor McKenna - got their hands on the ball, the Swans were caught out.
"I think we're only going to get better at it," Worsfold said.
"Conor McKenna and Andy McGrath are novices, rookies in the game … I think we can get better at it.
"There's other parts of our game, it's obviously not all fast offense, that we can still improve upon as well. I thought Sydney probably dominated the contest stuff in the first half, but we fought back really strongly in the second half of that. That's an area of our game that we're starting to get a lot better at as well."
WATCH: John Worsfold's full post-match media conference
The vastly experienced coach was philosophical about the result.
"John Longmire would have felt like I'm feeling now if the siren went 15 seconds earlier," he said.
"It wasn't a top of the table clash, but it almost felt like that. It was a big build up, both teams in pretty good form and it played out like that. I’m happy to be playing in games against form teams and being rated as matching them. Now we want to win those."
