Essendon believe they can still make the AFL finals as long as they develop a tougher approach in the run to September.

Coach Matthew Knights says the Bombers cannot be ruled out despite plummeting down the ladder with four straight losses - including last week's 84-point whipping by lowly Adelaide.

"The reality is we're two games out (of the eight)," Knights said on Tuesday.

"We are a long way back in the ruck, that's a fact and we're way back with a lot of other teams that would probably still think that the door is slightly ajar.

"But we let one of those teams jump us last week ... now every win you give to an opposition or every time you get beaten, you have someone pushing up a little bit harder.

"It's still very realistic, but were going to have to improve our footy dramatically if were going to do that," he said.

Knights accused his players of handing goals to Adelaide on a plate as they conceded a six-goal start to the Crows.

"It is a concern because part of AFL football is resilience and being tough and calm in a crisis and we certainly weren't that," he said.

"We didn't take the risks we needed to. You put yourself in a difficult position if you're seven goals-to-one down on the road.

"You just cannot gift-wrap the opposition goals when you're a reasonably inexperienced team trying to win against a team that's been in pretty good form the previous couple of weeks." Last week's big loss has sparked changes to the team to meet Melbourne on Sunday as the Bombers battle to stay in the finals hunt.

"We'll be certainly making some changes again this week," Knights said.

"Jay [Neagle] will come into the team this week. He's going to come in and play in our forward line.

"He's gone back and worked on his game.

"It would be great for him and [Scott] Gumbleton to now play together for the rest of the season. It's up to them now to make sure that they play well and play hard together and build up some chemistry."

Knights called for more aggression - even among themselves during training.

"We've probably got to get a touch more aggressive with each other, both during the week and on game day.

"You don't get anywhere being nice. We've got to play harder and stronger," he said.

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