Essendon coach James Hird admits his AFL side has work to do before they can challenge the league’s premiership favourites.
Reigning premiers Sydney pulled away late to beat the Bombers by 44 points at the SCG on Saturday, while Geelong ended Essendon’s undefeated start to the season in round seven.
“The Swans, Geelong and probably Hawthorn are the three teams that look to be the best three in the competition,” Hird said after his side’s loss to Sydney.
“I think against both Geelong and the Swans we’ve come up a bit short.
“That’s a developing thing, we need to get more games into our players. Practice our gameplan and I think that will come.
“But right at this moment, we’re just a little bit off those top three teams.
“We need to do a few things (to catch up with them) … we need to get a few more games into our players and make sure we can compete for the whole quarter, not just 20 minutes of a quarter.”
But Hird was far from alarmed ahead of his side’s Friday night clash with rivals Carlton at the MCG.
With the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) interviews out of the way and a few key players back from injury, Hird was upbeat about his side as they approach the halfway mark of the season.
“We’ve got things to work on and things to change, but at 7-3 we’re pretty happy with our position at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve just got to keep going ahead. I truly believe our second half of the year will be better than our first half with the injuries we’ve got, or haven’t got.”