Loading "I was there as a spectator last night – the amount of people leaving at half-time and three-quarter time angry, the venom towards the players for a lack of effort." Lloyd said he had no issue with the fierce reaction from Essendon supporters towards their players at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night. "The players are embarrassed by it ... Essendon have 75,000 members when they haven't won a final for 15 years," he said. "They're finally going to get there and they've served up that the last two weeks. It wasn't just last night, against Port Adelaide was horrible - they've lost 15 [percentage points] in the last two weeks."

Essendon forward Shaun McKernan agreed the fans had every right to boo the team. "They're obviously pretty passionate supporters and being a big club, obviously we have to own it as a group and know that we don't stand for performances like that," McKernan told Channel Seven. Lloyd said coach John Worsfold would come under pressure to keep his job if the Bombers failed to qualify for the finals. "They have been decimated by injuries but still, it can't be about [injuries], your system still has to stand up ... if they don't play finals, obviously the heat will come straight back on again," Lloyd said. But McKernan said Worsfold wasn't solely to blame for the heavy loss.

"Obviously we have to own a bit of that as well, it's not just purely on John and the senior leaders have to own that and that's about bringing everyone together and responding next week, which we're looking forward to," McKernan said. "I think it's a great opportunity going over to Perth next week and getting everyone together and travelling and trying to get a win on the road." Despite not being very animated on the interchange bench, Worsfold was communicating with players, according to midfielder Andrew McGrath. "He does like to give us space on the bench and reset ourselves and bring ourselves back to our A-game," McGrath said. "He is normally calm whether we're winning or whether we're losing so it's just how John approaches it, but he did help us a lot on the bench when we needed guidance and advice on the bench."

McGrath admitted it was tough coming from the ground to face Worsfold during the game. "You knew how disappointed he was, he doesn't articulate it too much to us but you can tell by the look on his face he was quite disappointed, and rightfully so with the performance we dished up," he said. McGrath described his team's performance as "an anomaly" and insisted they'd get back on the horse next week against Fremantle to rectify it. "There was a whole range of issues on the night that collectively resulted in that outcome. There's not one definitive answer but it was a disappointing night and something that we can't accept as a footy club, and we understand how disappointed the players and fans are," he said. "It was quite tough, when things aren't going your way, it's hard to get out of that tumbling cycle, I guess.