MELBOURNE eventually did enough to get the four points against Essendon on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
In a hard-fought and at times scrappy affair at the MCG, the Demons showed enough class to secure an 11-point victory to remain a game clear on top of the ladder.<\/p>\n
Sam Edmund and David King have since assessed the performance of both the Dees and Dons in a game which displayed somewhat of a gap between the two sides.<\/p>\n
They both feel a lack of composure cost the Bombers and that perhaps they are a year behind the Demons in terms of their development.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssendon are coming. They huffed and puffed,\u201d Edmund said on SEN Breakfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a pretty enthralling game on Saturday night. Just that lack of polish going forward was an issue for the Bombers all night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought they matched them in the contest, but they kicked the ball to [Jake] Lever and [Steven] May. They\u2019re not the first side to do this. When they weren\u2019t kicking it to Lever and May, they thought they\u2019d kick it to [Max] Gawn as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a \u2018nearly there\u2019 game [for Essendon], wasn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bombers, while they\u2019ve been great, they\u2019ve only beaten two teams above 12th on the ladder this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
To which King replied, \u201cIt showed a little bit of maturity [from Melbourne], a little bit of composure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gap between the two teams is only 12 months, it really is.<\/p>\n
\u201cJake Stringer, for as much damage as he does, and for how good he is out of centre bounce or out of stoppage, he did blast the ball a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could have lowered his eyes a couple of times or given a couple of handballs. There are 17 other teammates out there, you can use them on occasion. You don\u2019t have to be the sole reason to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the flip side of that, Edmund identified the class of Christian Petracca, who steadied the ship by kicking two of Melbourne\u2019s four third-quarter goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cPetracca was the class difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe finishing when he had nine possessions and two goals in the third quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n