Essendon coach Ben Rutten has explained how his side ran out of interchange rotations with five minutes left to play in Sunday’s loss to Sydney.
Dylan Shiel and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti were left stranded on the bench as the Bombers attempted their late fightback, having already used 75 rotations.
Rutten pointed to a late injury suffered by Jayden Laverde as well as general player exhaustion from the fast pace of play for the miscalculation.
“It’s a bit unlike us. We haven’t got that close to our rotation cap in a heap of games,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“There’s a few reasons behind it. There was a lot of goals scored, which is generally a good opportunity for guys to come off the ground.
“We were in a position where we wanted to win, and part of that was ensuring we had the guys we wanted on the field. To be able to do that, we had to speed up our rotations.
“Then Jayden Laverde came off with a shoulder injury, that was unexpected, we had couple of other guys come off because they were just exhausted.
“As much as we try and have a system around our rotations, we also have a bit of flex in that for injuries and for us to get the players we want on the field. That was kind of what happened in the end. It wasn’t the reason we didn’t get the result we wanted.
“We wanted to make sure we had (Kyle) Langford out on the ground and forward, he’d kicked three goals, he was another one we wanted to prioritise.
“They are all the little things that go into it. You can’t have everything.”
Laverde is unlikely to be available for the clash with the Western Bulldogs after being substituted out with the shoulder injury.