ESSENDON coach John Worsfold said the Bombers were "below AFL level" in their embarrassing 79-point loss to previously winless Fremantle at Domain Stadium on Saturday night.
"We were miles off in the start of the game and really looked like a team that is below AFL level," Worsfold said.
"Not just in a few players, but across the board."
Fremantle slammed four goals on the board before the Bombers blinked, setting the tone for the match.
Essendon actually won the last term by a point to prevent an even bigger disaster but lost another top-up player, former Docker Ryan Crowley to a nasty-looking hamstring injury.
And Worsfold forecast tougher times ahead for his battling club this season.
"We want to keep our squad as fit and available as possible," he said.
"We've lost a few players, (Michael) Hartley last week with a hamstring and (Nathan) Grima with a hip, so talls we are pretty light on. (Sam) Grimley had a hand operation last week.
"It's going to be tough. So we are going to bring effort.
"That was our biggest beating this year and I think it’s quite remarkable the way the boys are hanging in there."
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He said the top-up players were struggling to handle the workload after their late starts to the pre-season.
"We lose Crowley with a hamstring. We've been really conscious of trying to monitor those guys, that's why we left (James) Kelly out (tonight)," he said.
"We've lost Crowley, (Jonathan) Simpkin and (Mathew) Stokes with hamstrings now, so it's tough.
"We can't expect that we can play all these guys week-in, week-out and the fact that those guys need a rest means our younger players are picking up a big workload."
WATCH: John Worsfold's full post-match media conference
He was optimistic that Crowley could return by mid-season.
"It didn't look too good … you'd guess with what it looked like it would be a minimum of three weeks out," he said.
"Hamstrings can go up into the tendon, which means six or eight weeks out like Simpkin’s was, but hopefully it is at the lower end."
However, Worsfold described as "lovely" the standing ovation given to Crowley as he hobbled along the Domain Stadium boundary line late in the match.
"He obviously put a massive amount of blood, sweat and tears into playing at Freo and his supporters acknowledged that," Worsfold said.
