ESSENDON is rueing a bout of poor kicking in its loss to the Western Bulldogs, but coach John Worsfold remains confident the Bombers can make the finals despite the loss.

The Bombers entered Sunday's clash in eighth spot on the ladder and could have gone a fair way to consolidating their place with a win over the reigning premiers.

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However, the Dogs' 30-point win has seen them overtake Worsfold's men and bump them outside the eight to sit among a group of clubs striving for a September spot.

Due to their wooden spoon finish last season the Bombers have a favourable draw to finish the season, playing Carlton next week, Adelaide in round 21 at Etihad Stadium, Gold Coast the following week at Metricon Stadium and then finishing their year against Fremantle in Melbourne.

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Three wins could still see them sneak into the finals for the first time since 2014, but Worsfold acknowledged the Bulldogs clash as a missed opportunity to stake their claim.

"We're really looking forward to the challenge of those [next] four games. We talk a lot about our consistency and learning and playing good footy, and we're coming along pretty well," Worsfold said after the Bombers' loss.

"We need to make sure we continue to learn from the games that are ahead of us and whatever happens whenever the season finishes [we'll] be playing better footy week-in, week-out.

"Ultimately today was inviting for us, playing a team that was level pegging with us. It was a great opportunity to play in a pretty intense game and we weren't good enough. We need to show that we're good enough now by winning what's ahead of us."

The game was played at frenetic pace in front of a crowd of more than 48,000, and Worsfold said the pace and intensity of the contest had seen some of his players struggle to find a target with the ball.

Both teams had 32 scoring shots for the game, with the Bulldogs slamming on four goals in the final few minutes to blow out the final margin.

"It was a bit frustrating in that third quarter. We seemed to have a lot of shots for goal and they were very clean with their shots at goal, so that gave them a score-line advantage from just accuracy. The rest of the game it felt like it was always on and always tight," Worsfold said.

"Some of our field kicking all up, not just the shots at goal, was below what we would hope.

"Sometimes it's just execution, but there was some decisions we made in the game that looked reactionary to the pressure of the game. That was a great experience for a lot of the guys to play in a game where that pressure was ramped up a fair bit, so we took a fair bit out of that."

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Former skipper Jobe Watson was among the main culprits, making several uncharacteristically bad decisions with the ball that were costly. Tom Bellchambers had 37 hit-outs and won the ruck battle, but the Bombers weren't able to make the most of his dominance, losing the clearance count 36-22.

"We're all pretty disappointed with that as a [midfield] group, and Jobe's obviously one of our key parts of that group. We lowered our colours as a midfield collective in that regard. In terms of individual decisions, I can't comment too much at the moment other than saying that, as a team, we made some interesting decisions throughout the game that cost us good opportunities," he said.

Brilliant key forward Joe Daniher kept the Bombers in the contest with his equal career-best haul of six goals, which saw him take his tally to 53 majors for the season. It sees him take the lead in the Coleman Medal ahead of Lance Franklin and Ben Brown, who have both kicked 51 goals for the season.

The 23-year-old is enjoying the best season of his emerging career, but Worsfold said the personal accolade wouldn't be at the front of his mind.

"It'd be a wonderful achievement, but our focus is obviously at the moment around what we're doing as a team. I would love to celebrate the individual awards that our players may win after we've played some finals footy," the coach said.