Essendon is prepared for the challenge of a relentless Collingwood in Sunday afternoon’s blockbuster at the MCG.

The Bombers are coming off a disappointing loss to Hawthorn last round and are looking to rebound strongly against the Magpies.

“Collingwood are a team that are desperate to win like us,” Assistant coach Sean Wellman said.

“They are a quality team with some good midfielders coming back like Ball and Beams since we last played them.”

“We will have our challenges and we look forward to that.”

Essendon defeated Collingwood by 46 points on ANZAC Day earlier this season giving them a major boost ahead of their second encounter with their arch rivals this weekend.

“The players developed a bit of confidence after beating Collingwood on ANZAC Day as I think they had the wood on us up until then,” Wellman said.

“The game was pretty tight for three quarters and we were able to run away with it at the end so there is no doubt that when a team has had an advantage over you and you get one back on them you want to keep that going.

“We will be determined to play well like we did on ANZAC Day and hopefully get two in a row against a quality team.”

Jake Carlisle will be looking to rebound from a sub standard performance against Lance Franklin last weekend with the Hawthorn spearhead kicking eight goals.

Wellman expects an improved performance from Carlisle against Collingwood power forward Travis Cloke on Sunday afternoon.

“I think playing on Travis Cloke you know you are going to be involved in a lot of contests and they have had a bit of a different look with Ben Reid down there as well so we will have our challenges.”

“It will be great to see Jake respond obviously he got beaten by Franklin last weekend but that is life as a key defender.”

“You have to be able to bounce back quickly and he will be looking to do that against Cloke this weekend.”