ESSENDON utility Adam McPhee says his side must find alternate avenues to goal this season so they don't become over-reliant on skipper Matthew Lloyd.

With star goalkicker Scott Lucas set to miss at least half the regular season with a serious knee injury, McPhee said his side needed more contributors in attack if it was to win games.

“We can’t rely on Lloydy and I don’t think any side can rely on one goalkicker to win you games,” McPhee said.

Lloyd went goalless in the Bombers’ 99-point hammering at the hands of Geelong at Telstra Dome on Sunday.

Essendon could only manage 6.15 (51) for the day and while the Bombers champion was somewhat starved of opportunities on the day, McPhee said his captain would need help in 2008 if the team was to enjoy success.

“We need everybody else contributing,” McPhee said.

“Our forward entries weren’t that good yesterday, I think we could have used the ball a bit more going in.

“But as the season goes on we’re going to need guys kicking their twos and ones and not relying on only Lloydy - it’s just too hard.”

The Bombers face Carlton this week as part of AFL Rivalry Round, and McPhee said his team was looking forward to making amends from its round two disaster when it was wiped off the field by a red-hot Geelong.

The versatile Bomber conceded that the Cats were a class above his side on the day but he said the playing group would not dismiss the loss as an aberration.

“I think the best thing to do is learn from it,” he said.

“There was some good lessons that we can take out of it and use for this week coming.

"[We need to] get back to our structures, get back to what we know has been working and has worked for the past couple of weeks.

“It starts out here on the training track.”

McPhee said the Bombers were in a rebuilding phase with their game structure but as long as the side kept the faith and continued down its current path, the club would prosper in the long run.

The Bombers’ next step along that path comes against the Blues this weekend.

McPhee said there would be no radical changes to the way his side approached the Blues despite coming off the massive loss.

“We’ll go in there with a game plan and just make sure we implement it as a unit,” he said.

“We’ve always had good challenges with them and we’ll look forward to another one this week.”