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Essendon captain Dyson Heppell holding the Anzac trophy with Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury.Credit:Eddie Jim

Former Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes took exception to Essendon players “laughing” with their opponents after the siren on Channel Nine’sFooty Classified on Monday night.

Fremantle kicked 10 unanswered goals in Sunday’s match,while the Bombers were goalless in the second half until midway through the final term.

Essendon have recorded one win so far this season,conceding an average of 108 points per game,placing their defence last in the league.

Ahead of their Anzac Day match against Collingwood,Heppell said he had “full trust and belief” the Bombers would recover.

“In the second half our defence was poor,absolutely. There is no doubt about that,” Heppell said.

“We’ll take a hard look at that and,absolutely,we’re trying to put in a much better performance – a consistent performance – on the weekend.”

Former Essendon captainBrendon Goddard toldThe Age that Essendon’s defence “terrible” and lamented their “mental laziness” this week,while club legendMatthew Lloyd has already ruled the Bombers out of finals contention.

Heppell said some criticism hurt,but he was pleased with his team’s response.

“You take things to heart at times,but internally,you’ve got to try and steady the ship,” he said.

“I think guys have handled things really,really well. They’ve taken ownership of the way we’re performing and we’re not shying away from that.”

Heppell said the Bombers hoped to return to being a “blue-collar,hard-working team”.

“The brand we managed to produce last year,we had a real identity around our pressure and our speed and our ability to hunt ground balls and hunt the opposition and build momentum and win the ball back in our forward half,” he said.

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