Craig McRae fronted the press after steering his side to an 11-point victory in his first ANZAC Day as head coach.

"It was a great experience - coaching from the bench you hear the bumps and the bruises and the roars of the crowd," Fly said.

"Most games we've won most of the stats and today wasn't that day - our accuracy and our want to win got us over the line.

"We want to make mistakes because if we're not, we're not going for our kicks.

"We want to bounce back and embrace the imperfections - we're going to make mistakes but what matters is what you do next."

Small forward Jack Ginnivan booted five goals and earned high praise from the head coach.

"He's 19 years old and he's in front of a press conference (right now) - he's having all these opportunities to express himself and mature," Fly said.

"He's had a great start to the year and we want him to be himself, to be authentic and to know we've got his back."

Our forward line has looked different every round so far this season and was potent against Essendon.

"We haven't had the same forward line for five or six weeks now," Fly said.

"You look at our goal scorers, I think we're second in the league for individual goal kickers.

"We're finding ways to score and guys bob in and out and play their role.

"We've had no continuity - it would be nice to get some regular magnets in the same place but for now we're working with what we've got."

Fly said he was proud of the way his side closed out the game.

"We have been winning the stats and not winning games," he said.

"Twice in the last quarter we got fronted - Essendon hit the front and we found a way to come back, that shows great spirit.

"We want to make some moves and try to generate something.

"Pendles went through the midfield and won some centre bounces, Nick Daicos went back and showed some terrific maturity in the last quarter.

"We just want to be a team who has a go.

"We will get some things wrong and some things right but we won't die wondering."

Nathan Kreuger is expected to miss the rest of the season after suffering another shoulder subluxation.

"Unfortunately (with the shoulder) there was a high chance it might happen again - he will have scans and it looks like he'll have surgery and be out for the rest of the year."