Essendon coach Brad Scott isn't questioning the effort of his side in the fallout of a 69-point loss to Port Adelaide on Friday.
The Bombers were dominated by a three-headed Power midfield unit of Connor Rozee, Jason Horne-Francis and Zak Butters across the contest, with Essendon failing to take control in the middle after the opening term.
Despite winning the hitout count 34-23, the Bombers' onballers couldn't get first hands to the ball and conceded nine more 13 more clearances, with the Power taking the ball from the middle on 19 of a possible 25 occasions.
Speaking after the loss, Scott said his side struggled to keep hold of momentum when possession was on the line.
"I didn't think it was effort. I thought we got soundly beaten in centre bounce and lost momentum," the Bombers coach said of the difference.
"We set the game up the way we wanted it to look in the first quarter and it looked good. But in reality, if you win hitouts +11 and you lose centre bounce 19 to six, them you take I think 19 of those centre bounce wins into 16 inside 50s and score from it, in the rest of the game it's hard to arrest that momentum from that point on. So that was clearly the biggest issue for us.
"The end result looks like probably a lack of effort, but in terms of the things we tried to get on our terms; we lost momentum in some of the key areas of our game. So that was more of a concern for us today."
Scott labelled the loss a "a good wake-up call" for his group, who now sit with an even record of two wins and two losses after the opening month.
Despite Essendon's midfield ensemble being viewed as an advantage internally, Scott expressed his disappointment in Friday's outcome but overall credited the Power's dominance and altering tactics throughout the game.
"In the end, it's a good wake-up call for our guys," Scott added.
"[Our midfield] has been a strength to our game. Sometimes it's just a perfect storm, whatever we changed made it worse.
"We got beaten inside and outside, and that's a real credit to Rozee and Horne-Francis. They were clearly the two dominant players on the ground.
"There certainly wasn't a lack of change in matchups, we threw them around and whatever we threw at them, they were good enough to beat them. So that's a disappointing part of the game, but that's the difference between the two sides.
"We showed for a quarter that we can match them in that space, but the game goes for four quarters, not one.
"The big part of the message is that Port right now are where we want to be, and they gave us a good lesson tonight. You can be very frustrated and disappointed but you've got to learn your lesson and progress from there."
Essendon's night endured a further blow with young midfield-forward Archie Perkins expected to spend a stint on the sidelines with a hamstring injury sustained in the second half.
The Bombers return to Melbourne for Round 5 when they take on the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.
