Essendon is treating this Sunday's game against West Coast as if it was a ""final"" according to assistant coach Ashley Prescott.
“It’s a massive game for us; it’s a final really. We need to make sure that wherever we play, we play at 100%,"" he said.
“It is a big ground, which hopefully should suit us, if we get our work rate up, should suit our running type play but West Coast will have plans in place to slow that down.
Prescott confirmed that senior stars Matthew Lloyd (heel) and Mark McVeigh (cork) would not make the trip to Subiaco.
“McVeigh and Lloyd are likely exclusions. McVeigh has had a bit of bleeding that has gone down into his lower leg and Matthew will hopefully miss just the one game with a bruised heel, which hasn’t responded to the treatment quite as well as we would have liked, and he’ll be touch and go for next week,” he said.
“There were a few corkeys, but most of them have come up well, but we’ve got to have our final training and main session this morning and will finalise the team after that.
“Heath Hocking, Leroy Jetta, Hayden Skipworth, Sam Lonergan have all played some good consistent footy this year and are possibilities this week from the Bendigo Bombers.
“Darcy Daniher has been quite good too, we’ve played him up forward the last couple of weeks and he’s shown a lot of good form. Jay Neagle is another one, with Lloyd out, he is someone who can potentially come in, in his place.
“We want to have another forward, but we might also want to play another runner, so we’ll finalise that at selection after training.
To win a free trip to New York, thanks to club travel partner Luxe Travel, simply click here.
Meanhile, thanks to club major partner Samsung, Perth based Essendon fans can meet Matthew Knights and David Hille at a signing session this Saturday from 1:30pm at Harvey Norman, shop 80, Abernethy Rd, Belmont.
The team will also hold an open traing session at Subiaco on Saturday at 11:45am.
