ESSENDON is confident in forward Joe Daniher's goalkicking program, but the club will look for reasons why his set shots were so drastically wayward in Sunday's loss to Melbourne.
Just five days after a match-winning performance against Collingwood that earned him the Anzac Day Medal, Daniher produced a wasteful kicking performance that cost his team dearly.
The 23-year-old booted 1.6 for the match, including 0.5 in the second term and two shots that finished out of bounds on the full as the Bombers fell to the Dees by 38 points at Etihad Stadium.
Coach John Worsfold said Daniher was doing the required work and he was not concerned with his goalkicking program, but the Bombers needed to know what went wrong on Sunday.
Five talking points: Essendon v Melbourne
"That's what we'll have a look at. I know even with (forward line coach) Hayden Skipworth, he looked at it at half-time and talked to Joey about it," Worsfold said.
"Joe will ongoing review his program and we will have to (ask) is this currently the best program.
"In-season he has a lot less time to just go out and kick for goal, but I know Joe does that.
"We will support him as he keeps doing it."
While Daniher was the difference in his team's 18-point win against the Magpies last week, he was still wasteful with 3.4. Sunday's performance took his season tally to 13.16 from six games.
Worsfold's advice to him after such a costly performance was "be brave, back yourself in, do the work".
"He'll be a lot better kick than he currently is if he works hard at it consistently," the coach said.
"I don't expect him to get everything right in a week or in a month. It's an ongoing part of his improvement as a player.
"I know he's doing the work. If he wasn't doing the work I'd be disappointed. But he's doing the work.
"He's got a pretty clear picture of what he wants to be as a player, and that includes being a good set shot at goal. It will happen for him."
Daniher was not the only disappointing Bomber on Sunday, with the team's skills as bad as they have been this season, Worsfold said.
The coach did not lay the blame on the five-day break following Anzac Day, saying: "It's a fact, I don't know if it's a factor … I thought their run was pretty good, but certainly our skill levels were below what we expect".
Former skipper Jobe Watson was well below his best, finishing with just 13 possessions after spending long periods of the game forward.
The Bombers rested James Kelly, Matthew Leuenberger and Aaron Francis, with Brent Stanton also left out of the 22, and Watson had been confident he could push on with a short break.
"I had good discussions with Jobe during the week and he felt really ready to play," Worsfold said.
"We did make quite a few changes this week, and really through necessity we believe.
"Jobe was confident he had recovered and was ready to contribute."
