FREMANTLE coach Mark Harvey says his side’s goalless final term was due to Essendon’s shutdown tactics rather than an inability to finish off matches.

Speaking after Sunday’s 38-point loss to Essendon, Harvey said the Bombers – who kicked only two final-term goals themselves – worked well to close out the game.

 “We missed those couple of shots late in the third quarter that gives you the momentum you need going into the last quarter,” he said.

“Essendon were kicking the ball around a lot without too much result. It was a low-scoring last quarter and once they got four or five goals up they were happy to control-kick around the ground and make us man them up.”

Roger Hayden is likely to line up next week after missing the first two weeks with a hamstring injury. Harvey said his inclusion would be a valuable boost for Fremantle’s back half.

“A lot of sides push their forwards up the ground and your half-back line gets a good look too. A guy like Hayden who will come in to the side next week will probably make a difference in that way.

“We can’t rely on those guys. We need the rest of the team to be able to do that and expose the situation a lot better than they are at the moment.”

Harvey said clean disposal was one area that has led his side to a 0-2 start to the season.

 “We’re just not clean enough in close at the moment. It doesn’t give us any real advantage when we fumble and we don’t show enough initiative because of that. You find yourself on the back foot a lot on the back of not being clean enough,” Harvey said.

“Aaron (Sandilands) is getting his hands on it but we’re not clean enough to move the ball from stoppages. Until we get to the stage where all our midfielders are elite in that area then we’re going to have some issues.”

The Fremantle coach said the other area of concern was his team’s inability to convert its scoring opportunities. Fremantle had 38 inside-50s to Essendon’s 36 but still lost by more than six goals.

“We’re not finishing off. If you have a look at inside-50s the last two weeks we’ve beaten the opposition but we’re not capitalising on it. Hence the team starts to be reactive instead of showing initiative when we should be scoring,” he said.