Former Essendon legend Tim Watson has eliminated the Bombers from finals contention, if their display on the weekend is going to be a common theme in 2018.
Despite their comeback victory over the Adelaide Crows in the opening round, their current form is becoming concerning following their 21-point defeat to the winless Western Bulldogs.
The Dogs dominated from the outside, winning the disposal count by 94, inside 50's by 12, uncontested possessions by 101, marks by 72 and won the tackle count by one.
They smashed the Bombers in all facets of the game, and if it wasn't for inaccurate goal kicking, it could've been a lot worse for John Worsfold's men.
“They didn’t really come to play, and certainly didn’t handle the pressure and heat that returned for the Bulldogs,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.
It is only three weeks into the season, however, with their lack of dominance in the contest, as well as under achieving tall targets, pressure is starting to mount on the Bombers who were touted as a top-four contender.
“On the first three games, and this is the difficulty in this game, but we can only look at what we’ve got in front of us, or what we’ve seen already, they’ll be struggling from around 8th to 14th the Bombers this year based on what we’ve seen in the first three rounds.”
After an inspirational finals berth a season ago, the Bombers attacked in the trade period and brought in three class players to elevate the team to greater heights in 2018. However, thus far, Jake Stringer and Adam Saad look out of sorts, while Devon Smith is good without tearing games apart, something Worsfold needs to fix to get their season back on track.
