MARK Thompson does not know who Essendon will play in the ruck if Patrick Ryder is ruled out of next Sunday's clash against Carlton with an ankle injury.
Ryder injured himself in a ruck contest early in the third term of the Bombers' brave four-point loss to reigning premier Hawthorn at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, and was substituted out of the game shortly afterwards.
Thompson was unaware of the severity of Ryder's injury when he spoke at his post-match press conference, saying only that he had a "sore ankle".
"He's probably in doubt next weekend, I'm not sure what we're going to do next weekend in the ruck," Thompson said.
The Bombers' ruck division is already missing Tom Bellchambers, who had ankle surgery in late January that at the time was expected to keep him out for at least three months.
If Ryder is ruled out of the Carlton clash, that would leave the Bombers with just rookie Fraser Thurlow or forward Joe Daniher to call on.
As disruptive as that would be to Essendon's line-up, Thompson said Ryder's substitution from Friday night's game had helped bring the Bombers back into the match by freeing up forwards Jake Carlisle and Joe Daniher.
Despite boasting huge height advantages over their direct opponents – Daniher had 12cm on Josh Gibson, Carlisle 11cm on Kyle Cheney – the Bombers' duo managed just one goal between them in the first half.
Thompson said he was "pretty disappointed" with his key forwards' refusal to lead for the ball in the first half and their refusal to chase.
"I've been involved in games like this for a long time where if you get a few key defenders out you naturally think that you're going to have an advantage – it's never worked out that way," Thompson said.
"If my memory serves me well, we've never got an advantage from that because the team just kick the ball on their heads and the big forward didn't lead, they just thought their height was going to do it and it doesn't."
"That's the thing about taking one of them out (of the forward line) when Paddy went down, that it actually got the thing moving, which was better."
Thompson said Friday's loss was one of the few that had left him feeling "pretty happy", although he added in the next breath that he couldn't believe he was saying that.
However, Thompson made it clear that he did not want "honourable losses" to become a habit for the Bombers.
Asked whether he hoped Essendon would be better placed to win a nail-biting game like Friday night's next year, Thompson said he expected the lessons learned against the Hawks to sink in far quicker.
"Twelve months? You're a patient man. Next time we get into that same situation you'd like to win it," Thompson said.
"That's how much of a hurry I'm in, not 12 months."
