A FRUSTRATED Brad Scott said Essendon failed to handle the wet weather against Melbourne and only switched on in the final 10 minutes of the 17-point loss at the MCG.

The margin jumped out to 41 points halfway through the last quarter before the Bombers managed to string together four goals, playing quick and direct footy for the first time in the game.

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Scott was left to rue the disappointing nature of the defeat as the Bombers missed a chance to jump into second place on the ladder.

"We had some defensive lapses, on a night that just called for pretty simple footy," he said. "We conceded some transition goals which are hard enough in these conditions, but we got beaten by what we knew, which was the first time I've said that in a long time.

"Poor execution, didn't adapt to the conditions well early … even though it was pretty much going OK for us, we conceded some soft, poor goals.

"I thought Melbourne were quicker to the ground ball than we were around contest, even though it was a pretty convincing win in pressure in the numbers, it didn't look like that live. I thought they pressured us around the ball pretty well and got across to the contest. It was that sort of night, ball on the ground, slippery, get across to the contest, and they did that better than us, which was really disappointing.

"It's really frustrating. Melbourne played well, but we still generated 56 inside 50s (to 49), we still generated enough opportunity, but still conceded pretty ordinary goals and really didn't get the game played like we wanted to till the last 10 minutes, and it was all too little, too late."

Scott said despite the ruck dominance of Sam Draper in the absence of Max Gawn (ankle), Melbourne was able to apply enough pressure around the contest to nullify the lopsided hitout numbers.

"I'll have to break down the clearance numbers into a little more detail. They won the pre-contest ground ball, but then we won it post-clearance, the ground ball. It wasn't their inside players, it was more their peripheral players who were clearing the ball," Scott said.

"First possession was pretty even, but in those sorts of conditions, that's what you expect. But the big part of the game for us was (while) we had ruck dominance, it wasn't first possession that was the issue, it was more when the ball spilled around the contest, they were first to it. 

"Then when we were first to it, to their credit, their pressure was right on us and didn't allow us to move the ball the way we wanted to.

"The method we wanted to move the ball inside 50 given the conditions, we just didn't adhere to. It was the most disappointing part of the night for me, because it should have been pretty simple, and we just didn't do it. That's the first time I think I can say that in 18 months (in charge)."

Melbourne had a rare match without skipper and champion ruck Gawn, opting initially for Harry Petty, and as the game progressed, fellow forward Jacob van Rooyen.

"It was obviously different. It was unpredictable for us, but also unpredictable for the opposition. When you don't have a dominant ruckman like Max, you plan a little bit differently for the opposition. That gave us the opportunity to do that," Demons coach Simon Goodwin said.

"We had always gone in with a plan to share the load with Petty, van Rooyen and a little bit of (Daniel) Turner. That was just finding out what was going to work out for us on the night. I thought they did a great job. 

"That was something we had to deal with, missing Max, but we'll continue to find different ways to do it, as long as Max is out of the team, we'll continue to keep every option to us every week. Tom Fullarton's there, Will Verrall is there and obviously we've got the boys from tonight. We'll look at all those boys again this week."

Although Gawn somewhat cheekily suggested he was hoping to get back after one week, Goodwin was less effusive in his optimism, with Fremantle to come next round.

"He's progressing well. We're not going to put a time limit on it, because we're not sure," he said.

"But he did have a good couple of days the past few days, so we'll assess him mid-week and see where it's at and make that call later in the week."