THE DAY before last week's game against Richmond, Essendon forward Jake Carlisle had 25 shots for goal at training. He kicked 24 of them.  

In the warm-up less than an hour before the Tigers' game started, forwards assistant coach Nathan Bassett noticed Carlisle's dead-eye set-shot kicking and approached him, telling him he was "on".

That Carlisle went out during the game and kicked one goal from six shots – and sprayed several he was expecting to slot – did not make him more confused about his kicking action, but more aware of what to do to stop it from happening again. 

Carlisle, 23, said discussions this week with Bombers goalkicking great and now part-time coach Matthew Lloyd have helped him focus.

"This week's been good. I've been working hard with Matty Lloyd and have my routine back on," Carlisle told AFL.com.au ahead of the Bombers' game against Geelong on Saturday night.

"I just need to get that confidence back to kick through the ball a lot more and not poke or stab at it, no matter if I'm 10 metres out or 40 metres out, which has been my problem."

Carlisle, who has booted 11.10 from eight games this year, knows his goalkicking soured what was an otherwise impressive and confidence-boosting game against the Tigers, which included nine marks and 15 disposals.

He has worked with Lloyd this week to make sure next time he turns 1.3 (and a couple of shots that didn't score) into a better return, even though the pair didn't closely review last week's misses.

"Matty said 'Do you want to look at it?' and I said no, and he said 'Yeah, it's probably a good thing' because I know what I did wrong and he knows that I know as well," Carlisle said.

"Part of him coaching me is just worrying about what we can do right. He focuses on just having a routine.

"It can kill your confidence at times, but I know what I do wrong, I just have to worry about fixing it and mentally staying on top of it. I can't let one miss get to me. The main focus is staying positive."

Carlisle felt he was missing his touch in the Bombers' 13-point loss to the Tigers after being away from the club all week in the lead-up to the game with illness.

But he was encouraged by his marking and believes he will hit better form in the second half of the year after entering the season on the back of an injury-interrupted pre-season.

"Coming off the flu, I was sick all week and didn't train too much so obviously my touch and my skill was off. But I did feel fresh and ready to go, and part of that was my jumping," he said.

"A big part of my game is my marking and jumping and the fresher I'm feeling the more I'll do it."