King puts Dons back six and “constantly confused” Ben McKay in the gun

David King is putting Essendon’s back six in the gun ahead of Saturday’s clash against Adelaide at the MCG.

After losing Jordan Ridley to concussion, the Dons have named Ben McKay, Andrew McGrath, Jaxon Prior, Mason Redman, Zach Reid and Nic Martin in starting defence.

King called out several big names from that group to improve on last week’s effort in the loss to Hawthorn, adding that big-money recruit McKay looks confused and inexperienced despite being a 95-gamer.

“I’m putting the Essendon back six in the gun, the whole back six from the Essendon Football Club,” King said on SEN Breakfast.

“17 goals the Hawks kicked last week and they 16 marks inside 50.

“Ben McKay looks constantly confused. He’s looked like a 10-gamer at times.

“Zach Reid, he's a work in progress, and he's better than what he's showing, but he just appeared a little slow last week.

“Jaxon Prior… I reckon 70 per cent of SuperCoach teams that had him in subbed him out mid-week and have reversed their trades to get him back in. They thought he’d be out of the team.

“Andrew McGrath's another one. I still don't know if Andrew McGrath's a good player, a very good player, an average player or an overrated player. He’s 26 and has played 160 games now.”

While Essendon’s back six have all either had strong patches in their career or quality individual performances, King wants them to put it together as a group and they’ll get their chance to do so against a high-quality Crows forward line.

“I just want them to deliver and actually play top-level footy. Individually they’ve had some games, there’s a reason they’re there,” King said.

“I just want to see them perform. Simple as that. They’ve got a tough challenge this weekend, the Adelaide Crows moved the ball pretty well last week and they've loaded up forward of centre.

“Let's see if they fire.”

Saturday’s game between the Bombers and Crows begins at 1:20 pm (AEDT) at the MCG.