BRAD Scott says Essendon finally got some reward for its effort on Saturday after the club snapped a 17-game losing streak to stun Melbourne at Gather Round. 

Another defeat during Gather Round would have seen the Bombers register a new club record of 18 straight losses, but Scott said his side had not discussed avoiding that unwanted piece of history in its preparations for the Demons at Adelaide Oval.

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Instead they were able to manoeuvre the ground with different positional changes – Peter Wright into the ruck, Andrew McGrath tagging Kysaiah Pickett, Kyle Langford to defence and Sam Durham to attack – to claim a resounding 45-point win that saw them back on the winners' list for the first time since May last year. 

"It's satisfying, that's for sure. The players looked like they enjoyed themselves late in the game and even in the first half we were playing the way we wanted to play with the level of competitiveness and they enjoyed that part of the contest," Scott said post-game. 

"It can be really challenging almost preaching a similar message around level of effort and the things we've been working on, and sometimes the reality is you need some reward for the effort because it's hard to see the positive progress and things moving in the right direction when you're not getting the result."

Scott said the ability to change things from recent weeks was helped by the return of the likes of Jordan Ridley (calf) and Nate Caddy (concussion).

"This is the first time I can remember selection pressure. We've had it in my time, but I just can't remember it it was that long ago. And that means that you have some flexibility to do some different things and move some players around," he said.

"Over the last 18 months we've been so hamstrung with what we can do. There are certain levers you can pull but to be able to pull personnel levers and to have options certainly helps. 

"We've said we're excited about our young players but I get when you're not seeing results people don't really care that much. But we've been excited about these young guys."

Scott said last week's improved second half against the Western Bulldogs had led to belief growing in his group after a dismal start to the season. 

"We're still a massive work in progress and perspective is such a massive thing in this game," he said. 

"I'm really pleased for the players to get that reward, I'm really pleased for our supporters, who have been through a really tough time, and I'm really pleased for the club.

"But perspective is important, it's not like we have done anything miraculous. We've still got a hell of a lot of work to do. Even if we don't get the result today, I think the trajectory we're on is still the same."

Melbourne counterpart Steven King said his coaching group would dig into why the Demons were lethargic after their red-hot win over Gold Coast a week ago. 

"We certainly didn't look as sharp as last week. That's probably happened a couple of times now in the five weeks in where we just haven't looked as sharp," King said. 

"As a coach you look at your preparation and we'll reflect on that for anything we can do to get our players making the game a bit easier with our intent.

"Full credit to Essendon – their pressure and run was outstanding for four quarters and it didn't feel like the game was on our terms at all today and yet at half-time we were a chance. 

"But we did look a bit lethargic which is disappointing and if that's the case the game at that level is going to be hard."