Essendon losing streak has stretched to eight games, following the Bombers 51 point loss to Hawthorn at the Phone Dome in AFL Round 11 on Saturday night.

A nine goal haul from Hawk forward Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin was the difference between the two sides as young Bomber defender Patrick Ryder had a night he would rather forget.

Despite Franklin booting five goals in the first half, the Bombers remained more than competitive, being down by only 7 points heading into the half-time break after an after-the-siren goal to Adam McPhee.

Essendon began the match full of running with goals to Sam Lonergan and Matthew Lloyd to establish an early 12-point lead, but failed to capitalise on its scoring opportunities as the Hawks took a six-point lead at quarter-time. Scott Lucas playing his 250th game was productive early with three goals, while skipper Matthew Lloyd added two goals of his own in the first half, but both faded as the match wore on.

Andrew Lovett was a standout in the opening half as the Bombers tactic of playing ‘holding the ball tempo’ football was frustrating the Hawks.

Angus Monfries got the Bombers within one point to open the second half, but from that point on it was all the Hawks with five of the next six goals, in a ten goal to four second half with Franklin and the other Hawk power forward Jarryd Roughead causing problems for both Ryder and veteran defender Dustin Fletcher.

Essendon coach Matthew Knights said after the game he would continue to back his youngsters, including defender Paddy Ryder.

“Lance did beat Patrick on his merits on a few occasions, but the thing we’ve got to get with Patrick is when he wins contests, I want him to be a bit more daring himself,” Knights said. “He would have learned a valuable lesson tonight and he’s going to be a great player, along with Scott Gumbleton, for this club.”

“I was really disappointed in the midfield because when [Hawthorn] started to win clearances and come inside 50 without much pressure, it really put a lot of extra pressure on Patrick and Dustin [Fletcher] and the guys down there.

“He’s a very good player, he was on top of his game, and we weren’t good enough to hold him.”

“We probably could have ended up with a couple more goals in the first half, so that was disappointing.” Knights added. “In the second half, it was basically the opposite. We didn’t take the game on, we became stagnant, we went back off the mark too much and took too long.”

Nathan Lovett-Murray was the major ball winner with 27 touches while Brent Stanton (26), Mark McVeigh (24), Dustin Fletcher and Bahar Houli had 23 disposals each.

Essendon will be looking to break their two month losing streak, when the Weagles come to the Phone Dome next Friday night for AFL Round 12.