Essendon coach Mark Thompson has weighed in on the tagging debate ahead of Sunday afternoon’s blockbuster against Collingwood at the MCG.

The do-or-die clash features the two in-form taggers of the competition in Collingwood’s Brent Macaffer and Essendon’s Heath Hocking.

Macaffer has been tipped to latch onto either Dyson Heppell or David Zaharakis, yet Thompson said he was none the wiser on which Bomber would get the tag.

“That’s a good question- I’m not sure,” said Thompson

“It’s like who do we go to- Swan or Pendlebury? In the past if we go to one, the other one will bob up.”

“Budda is a very good tagger, he does the job most weeks.”

“I suppose if you were Pendlebury or Swan, you would be thinking the same- I hope he doesn’t walk my way.”

Heppell, 22, who has been become one of Essendon’s best performers throughout the midfield this season, and has begun to learn to deal with the extra attention.

Thompson said the young-gun would soon quickly discover how to handle the tag.

“Absolutely, if you get tagged every week or if you have a history of being tagged you soon work out what’s coming,” he said.

“You don’t enjoy it, it makes it a little bit harder but there’s ways through it and I think Stanton, Watson- all the good players have dealt with it, but when it first comes it is a bit of a shock to some players.”

The Bomber midfield was further depleted during the week with Brendon Goddard missing the clash due to suspension, yet the Essendon coach was optimistic with the opportunity ahead.

“Well that’s the challenge and it would have been made easier if we had more players,” said Thompson.

“It’s not that case and it’s a good opportunity.”

“I think Hepp has stood up, David Myers has stood up and Stanton is a consistently good player- so we’ve got enough players.”