GREATER Western Sydney's season is in danger of collapsing after a fourth straight loss, this time to Essendon on Saturday night. And coach Leon Cameron is prepared for the critics to come hard at his club again this week.
The Bombers kicked six goals to one in the last quarter at Spotless Stadium to win by 35 points, but while the visitors have found form with a couple of positive results in a row, the Giants are down on confidence, missing plenty of top-grade talent and woefully out of form.
BOMBERS FLY UP Full match coverage and stats
The home side responded to its disappointing effort against North Melbourne in round nine at different stages throughout the night, but once again couldn't produce a consistent brand of footy for long enough and when it counted.
Cameron said post-match that the focus on his side's losing streak is warranted.
"I think the scrutiny has been on us for the past three weeks, really," he said.
"Will it get worse? Probably.
"Whether they come at myself or the players, they're probably right (to do so) and I can't argue with it.
"I can’t sit here and say I'm happy with our performances because clearly our last four weeks haven't been the greatest.
"What you do with it (the scrutiny) is a good test for any footy club and I'm confident we'll come out the other end.
"I think the ladder is irrelevant at the moment, we've got to play and fight for four quarters, not three.
"From the coaches to our players we've got to keep addressing that because it’s the only way out of a form slump."
SMOKY SPOTLESS ON THE NOSE Five talking points
The Bombers dominated the stoppages and easily won the clearances (55-42), with the likes of Dyson Heppell (12) and Zach Merrett (nine) leading the way.
Essendon doubled the Giants' centre clearance count (16-8) on the back of Tom Bellchambers' ruck work, and while Stephen Coniglio matched Heppell's 12 clearances, the next best were Josh Kelly and Callan Ward with four.
WATCH Leon Cameron's full post-match press conference
Cameron said his talented midfield has some work to do to help turn the season around.
"When you lose the clearance count like that it hurts you because the inside 50 count was positive," he said.
"They probably scored three or four goals from centre bounces and that breaks your back a little bit.
"But we're not going to shy away from it, we need to address it head on.
"If there's structural issues or effort issues we've got to deal with it."
