Ridley injury to hurt ‘flat’ Bombers

Ridley, who had been the Bombers’ best with 29 disposals and 14 marks before he suffered the injury while kicking in the final quarter, will be sent for scans on Monday.

His setback comes ahead of a must-win clash with Sydney at Marvel Stadium next week, with Essendon now left with no room for error in the race for a finals spot following a performance against the Bulldogs which Scott labelled “flat”.

He said he was more disappointed by the effort from his side than he was after the 77-point thrashing against Geelong the week before.

“I think it’s the first time I thought we just looked flat … which probably is a strange thing to say given last week, but last week I thought we were just comprehensively outplayed in every facet of the game by a better team,” Scott said.

“Geelong are where we want to be, and we’re striving to close that gap, and we also need to close the gap to the Bulldogs.”

Scott said he was thrilled with Ridley’s performance against Bulldogs spearhead Aaron Naughton before the injury, which he confirmed was a soft tissue injury rather than a corky.

“It looks like a quad strain, but we’ll do the usual, get it scanned and get back to you with the detail of it … he did it kicking, so it wasn’t a cork,” he said.

“We’ll just get it scanned and hope he’s OK. I’ve been watching as a footy fan Naughton vs. Ridley over the last few years, and (Ridley) was great tonight.

“Naughton had his moments too, Ugle-Hagan … they’ve got some real capability forward of the ball, so I didn’t think it was our defenders that were the issue tonight.”

Scott said he would make no excuses for Jake Stringer’s lacklustre performance, after the dynamic Bomber managed only eight disposals at 38 per cent efficiency.

Stringer started the game strongly and played through the middle but did not attend another centre bounce after his first three, with Scott conceding he may have been affected by injuries.

“He’s playing, so anyone who plays is fit. Every player at this stage of the season is carrying something, and Jake’s no different to that, but it’s the old adage – we make a decision to play him, and that’s a joint decision,” Scott said.

“Jake would say himself, when you declare yourself fit to play … Jake will never make excuses, and he wouldn’t want me to make excuses for him either.

“We’ll have to think through that, as to whether the niggles that players carry at different stages impact their performance to the point that maybe you have to think about having a week to get it right.

“I didn’t think our forward line looked dangerous enough tonight, and that wasn’t just Jake.”

Originally published as Scott disappointed by ‘flat’ Bombers as Ridley sent for scan