KANGAROOS coach Dean Laidley says he was proud of how his young players stepped up in the absence of injured star Daniel Wells.

Wells hobbled off the ground in the second quarter of the win over Essendon after jarring his knee in a marking contest, leaving the Kangaroos’ lesser lights to guide the team to victory.

"When something like that happens it puts extra burden on other players," Laidley said."For them to stand up the way they did tonight was fantastic."

The coach reserved special praise for 22-year-old Blake Grima, who was playing just his ninth game of senior football after a couple of injury-riddled seasons.

"Blake missed two years of football and what he’s done to get his body back has been enormous," Laidley said.

"He’s only playing 50-60 per cent game time and he’s still got a long way to go to get up to 85-90 per cent but he’s a quality young man and the group has noticed that."Two years out of footy is a hell of a lot of time."

But the Kangaroos’ coach was not getting carried away with the win, pointing to Essendon’s flurry in the final quarter as a weakness in the Kangaroos’ defence.

"I was a little disappointed in them tonight, just with a few little things that we spoke about," he said.

"With our match-ups, I thought we were slow to react."

But Laidley said he saw some encouraging signs from backman Josh Gibson, who had the arduous task of minding Scott Lucas for the night.

"We thought Josh has done a reasonable job even though Lucas kicked five goals on him," Laidley said.

"Scott Lucas is an elite goalkicker in this competition…tonight was a learning curb for Josh and he’ll come out a much better player."’