Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell has labelled his side’s first-half display against Geelong as “unacceptable”.
The Bombers trailed by almost 10 goals at half-time before going down by 66 points which all but ended the club’s finals hopes.
"It's unacceptable," Campbell told Sportsday.
"That performance in the first half is not what we want to stand for, it's as simple as that.
"We need to be better and need to lift our baseline and we are absolutely committed to it.
"I know our players, our coaches and our football club want to get better because it's not what will make our members proud and that's what we are committed to do.
"Halves like yesterday (Sunday) in the start of that game … we can’t be happy with that. If we're going to lift our baseline, we have to demand more.
"I know our coaches are doing that and our playing group are doing that themselves."
Essendon great Matthew Lloyd has called for action after hearing Campbell’s criticism.
Lloyd told AFL Media on Monday that his former club is the "laughing stock" of the competition as their 15-year wait for a finals win goes on.
"I heard a lot of words," Lloyd told Sportsday.
"(It's time for) action now, I've heard it all. It's been a lot about off-field, it's about on-field performance now."
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