ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights still believes applying an attacking game plan will ultimately benefit his inexperienced players, despite the fact Sunday's loss to Port Adelaide produced the Bombers' fourth in a row.

Knights, who watched his undermanned side go down by 64 points to the Power at Telstra Dome, said backing his players to take the game on might produce "highs and lows" in the short term, but will be advantageous beyond that. 

"There are two schools of thought. You could play two or three numbers behind the ball, and you could get rolled over 12 goals to eight, and that's all good and well," he said, post-match.

"Or you could encourage your players to play a pretty direct style of football, try and link up and take the game on, but at times if you don't get that right, you're going to pay the price.

"That's what we're doing at the moment. But I would certainly be keen for my players to keep playing against better and stronger opposition and learn the game.

"I don't think it will help in two or three years time if we put numbers behind the ball. I don't think they'll learn anything. That's my view on it."

With a spate of injuries forcing the Bombers to blood three players on Sunday, the side took to the field with seven players "with 10 games and under" to their names.

But Knights said that was no excuse as to why the side was so comprehensively beaten by Port Adelaide.

"[There is] no hiding away from fact we've got to be better.

"Even though we had significant personnel down, you expect a team to play better. We came here today to win the game, no matter whether we were putting a young team out or an experienced team," he said.

"That's the way we attacked it. It didn't come off, and that's the reality of it. We didn't win, we weren't good enough, and were clearly outplayed by Port Power.

"But that's irrelevant with the players out. If you haven't got the players because of injury, you can't do a lot about that."

He praised Port Adelaide for being quick to pounce on mistakes after gaining the initiative early and holding on to it for the duration of the match.

"They were first at the ball, first at the contest, and I think it was about five goals to one at quarter-time," he said.

"We were certainly on the back foot from that point. At different stages in the game, I thought we applied decent pressure to try and get some momentum, but just some basic errors at times cost us.

"We turned it over and then they went down and capitalised. When you're playing a side like Port Adelaide that is pretty skilful, they will capitalise on your errors, and that's what happened at times."

Knights said he would prefer the Hall of Fame Tribute match wasn't next weekend, as he would prefer the Bombers to play again and attempt to atone for such a disappointing loss.

"That might sound a bit out of left field considering we've got a few guys on the sidelines, but I would like to get stuck back into it sooner rather than later," he said.

"We just have to wait now until the Sunday following when we play Sydney, in Sydney."

He also said the Bombers would seek clarification over some umpiring decisions made in the opening quarter, after skipper Matthew Lloyd was dismissed by the umpires when he "rationally" approached them to ask for an explanation on the holding the ball rule. 

"I asked David Calthorpe [team manager] if we could send the captain over to speak [at quarter-time]. I asked Matthew to go over and ask for a clarification, but the umpire sent him away," he said.

"Obviously it had to be after the quarter-time break for that to happen. I'm going to have to speak to Jeff Gieschen.

"From my perspective, whether it's my game today or other games, there doesn't seem to be a holding the ball rule anymore, or prior opportunity.

"It just seems to be that part of the game, you make tackles, and even if there is prior opportunity, it's just a restart. It's a bounce.

"We've just got to adjust to that as a team. We haven't really adjusted to that rule very well, so we're going to have to adjust, and I'll go through the right channels and speak to Jeff about that and see if we can improve our game in that area."