Broken Bombers: The dark cloud gathering over Essendon

There is a dark cloud gathering over Essendon.

That is the opinion of Kane Cornes who fears for coach Brad Scott and the playing group in the wake of their dismal 63-point loss to Port Adelaide on Sunday.

The heavy defeat to the Power came in the wake of a similarly lacklustre showing against Hawthorn when they lost by 62 points in Round 1.

Cornes believes the Bombers are broken.

“There seems to be at Essendon and over Brad a dark cloud gathering,” Cornes said on SEN’s Fireball.

“It felt that way leading into that game and you also felt it was a bit early for that to be happening. That’s just the reality of it.

“There’s Kevin Sheedy talking, there’s the Dean Solomon stuff, there’s Andrew Welsh the new president who has wanted to come in and make a statement.

“They just never, ever get any clean air.

“What they served up against Hawthorn - good side who played in a prelim - was unacceptable defensively. But it’s against a good side so you think that the response will surely come against Port Adelaide because they’re not a great side.”

Cornes lambasted the Bombers for their subpar first quarter and picked out some poor performances from midfielders Jye Caldwell and Sam Durham.

“I’m looking at the first quarter and inside 50s entries was 21-6, clearances were 13-4, I saw Zak Butters waltzing through the middle of the ground with not a soul anywhere near him,” he continued.

“Port dominated so surely the Bombers had a crack with their tackling. They laid seven tackles in the first quarter.

“To me it’s broken.

“Caldwell missed his hand with a handball, then an easy chip comes to him for an uncontested mark and he drops it. Port go back and score. Caldwell is now a leader of this footy club.

“Durham had few touches in the first quarter. He’s one you could absolutely gold stamp for effort.

“There’s not one thing you look back in the first quarter and say, ‘Gee, they’ve done well’. Go back and look at the first quarter - where was the response when we all expected it to come?

“Brad solidified this with his comments after the game - the club is broken.”

In his post-match pass conference, Scott was asked if he believes some of his players lack the desire to defend.

“I think it's part of it, yeah. Because it would be ridiculous of me to say that's not the case,” Scott said.

“We're not hard-nosed enough in defence, full stop. That's not just the defenders, that's all over the ground.

“I’m a coach who very rarely questions a lack of effort and a lack of fight. You know these guys well enough that they'll always give that. But there's no doubt we're demoralised. And that can appear to look like a lack of effort and a lack of fight.”

David King reacted to those comments while unearthing some undesirable stats delivered by the Dons.

“He says our pressure was non-existent. It’s worse than that,” King said.

“Last week they had a pressure rating of 161 which was their seventh worse pressure game for five years.

“There’s a benchmark there. At least be better than this without the footy.

“It was 149 on the weekend. The worst on record for 13 years.

“What’s happening at Essendon?”

The 0-2 Bombers, with a paltry percentage of 55, next meet North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.

The Dons have won 12 straight over the Roos which will make for interesting viewing.