Fresh from a nine-day break following their Anzac Day clash, Essendon are looking ahead to a third interstate trip of the season when they face the Eagles at Optus Stadium this Saturday.

The Bombers are feeling reassured following last Thursday’s performance against Collingwood, with Senior Coach Brad Scott again highlighting his side’s tenacity as a positive takeaway from the drawn game.

As the squad builds through the year, Scott is still focusing on ‘effort and intent’ as a key metric for improvement.

“It wasn’t too tricky (to process the drawn result),” Scott said.

“We were really pleased with most aspects of the game, we executed on the large part really well and clearly missed some opportunities, I probably have the same view I did post-game which was that it was a great contest.

“Our expectation is just to improve one step at a time every week and I think we’re doing that. It’s always this common battle that we’re improving but everyone else is improving too, so it’s how much you’re improving relative to everyone else.

“The exciting thing for us is we see all the upside and improvement, but certainly the things we look most closely at (effort and intent) have been really solid.”

The Bombers could receive a welcome boost at selection this weekend, with emerging midfielder Archie Perkins a test for this weekend’s clash after recovering well from his hamstring strain earlier in the season.

Alongside Perkins, senior performers Dylan Shiel and Matt Guelfi are also putting their hands up for a senior recall following respective returns through the VFL, creating healthy selection headaches for the Dons.

“The upside I refer to is more system-based than personnel, (but) it’s always great to have personnel available and provided Archie trains well, he’s had a really strong rehab block,” Scott said.

“We’ve been very conservative with him, so we’re assuming he’ll get through the session really strongly and we’ll have a selection dilemma.

Opting for a tall line-up last week, Scott is still weighing up how to best tackle an improving Eagles outfit but will look to reward consistency and effort from his big men, especially with the flexibility of his ruckmen to go forward.

“Horses for courses (in our week-to-week selection)," Scott said.

"We think we’re going to have some options available in that space and we’ll look at who we’re playing, particular roles, but rather than just looking at height we think we’ve got flexibility within that.

“Whether we go with the same structure this week, we’ll wait until we get through our main session and get our full availability list and make a decision."

With West Coast winning their last two games on home deck at Optus Stadium, the Bombers are presented with a lively challenge in their pursuit of a fifth win for the season.

Scott’s fully aware of the task at hand, citing the evenness of the competition over the past month.

“It’s just a different challenge in terms of structure,” Scott said.

“West Coast are playing some really good footy the past four weeks so we’re well aware of the threats they pose, and we’ll still select a side that we think is best equipped to get the job done against them.

“They’ve had a really solid month and have had a challenging couple of years with injury, (but) have got some availability back and they’re playing well, there aren’t too many surprises there.

“They’ve got a strong line-up, so we’re going to have to be at our best.”

The Bombers take on the Eagles from Optus Stadium at 8:10pm AEST (6:10pm AWST) on Saturday night.