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Essendon coach Brad Scott has praised his young side for their efforts against the GWS Giants but not their kicking for goal after they started the match with eight behinds.

First-gamer Liam McMahon kicked their first goal, and his first in AFL football, late in the second term.

Peter Wright of the Bombers marks the ball over Joe Fonti of the Giants and Isaac Kako of the Bombers. Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

“It was a really good test for us in that you look up at the scoreboard and it’s 7.1 to 0.8 and the first two of their goals were free kicks against poor old Angus Clarke, where they went back and slotted them from the boundary line,” Scott said.

“We missed some easy ones but the hardest thing in footy is to generate the shots [at goal] and we will keep working on the conversion but we got inside 50 57 times against a really good opposition.

“Lots of parts of the game were really good but we lacked the execution which we will keep working on.”

When asked about the goal-kicking, Scott had a simple answer and said his side would keep working at it.

“It’s never bad luck. We just missed,” Scott said.

His young forward line which included mid-season draftees like Archer May and McMahon due to the club’s injury issues.

“It’s hard to build connection when half your forward line was playing state league six weeks ago,” Scott said.

“With young forward lines, it’s hard to build those connections over a couple of preseasons and we are trying to do it in a few weeks but that’s the challenge we face and we’ll make no excuses.”

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