Anzac footage inspired Bombers

ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights has paid tribute to the fighting spirit of his players after they overcame the odds to stun Collingwood in Saturday's thrilling Anzac Day blockbuster.

Knights used images of Australia's armed forces embodying the Anzac spirit to inspire the playing group in his preparation for the match and they needed every bit of that motivation after losing David Hille in the second minute of the contest.

"Our theme today was 'never give up because they [our soldiers] never did'. It epitomised the way we went about it," Knights said.

"We watched a bit of vision before the game of the Anzac spirit and we watched some on Adam McPhee playing his 150th match. We watched some vision on the way we go about our footy.

"Mathew Lloyd did have a heavy corkie, Sam Lonergan did have a heavy corkie, but they had to play, and the way they played was good because they never gave up even though they were sore.

"They were sore, but they said to me at three-quarter time that they were right to go. It would have been too difficult for the rest of our group if those guys couldn't play on.

"To be resilient, to believe and keep taking the game on is something which was just very brave by our playing group and something I'm very proud of."

Joy over the win was tempered for Knights, who appears to have lost lead ruckman Hille to a season-ending knee injury.

He said it was almost certain the 27-year-old had damaged his anterior cruciate ligament, which would require a knee reconstruction, sidelining him until next year.

The loss of Hille forced Patrick Ryder to carry the ruck duties all day and he did so with such courage that he was awarded the Anzac Medal for best on ground.

"Out of a difficult situation came an opportunity for a young man to realise that he had to take the game by the scruff of the neck," Knights said of Ryder’s herculean effort.

Also of concern for Knights was the form of veteran forward Scott Lucas, who appeared all at sea at times, and finished goalless.

"It would be a real problem if he wasn't getting the opportunities, but he is," Knights said of his out-of-form centre half-forward.

"As a head coach I've got to be supportive of all of my players. The time to be supportive as a coach is when people are going through difficult times and that's the big part about coaching.

"It's all good and well to put the screws in them when they're not going well, but that's the time when you've got to support them."

Despite moving into positive territory with the win-loss record after the morale-boosting victory, Knights wasn't about to be swept away by the post-match euphoria in the Bombers' change rooms.

"We really haven't done anything yet," he said.

"We're really in the infancy of this season. We've won three games and lost two, but we've still got to work really hard on our consistency because we've got a young group.

"I don't think we've done a lot yet and respect is gained over time and we've got a long time for this group to gain respect yet."