Former Essendon great Matthew Lloyd has questioned Essendon's culture following Sunday's 72-point loss to GWS.
The Bombers were dispatched by the Giants in arguably the poorest performance by any team over the opening round to now sit on the bottom of the ladder.
And the alarm bells are already ringing for Lloyd, who believes the Bombers' issues date back further than just the weekend.
"We can't just say 'it's round one and these things happen', and they might bounce back, they may well" Lloyd told AFL Media's Access All Areas.
"But this is real worrying signs for the Bombers. This isn't just one week, I'm looking at it across a month. They were poor against Carlton (in the JLT), they lacked energy, they lacked passion. Then against Geelong, they were really poor.
"Dyson Heppell comes out on the eve of round one and says 'we've gotta get some energy back'. That raised alarm bells for me. The could not have played any worse and I don't care what tactics Ben Rutten or John Worsfold have. If you do not have passion, care for each other and hardness at the contest, you go nowhere.
"I've got grave concerns for where they're at. If they don't come out breathing fire against St Kilda this week, there's cultural issues at Essendon because there's something wrong if you can't compete hard round one."
Essendon meet St Kilda at Saturday night at 4:35pm at Marvel Stadium.
