Matthew Knights today vowed to stick to his philosophy of injecting youth into the Essendon side in order to achieve a period of sustained success in the future.

“As I have said all along, I want to give the younger players an opportunity to grow and get game time and gain experience,” Knights said to media today.

“Last year’s draft will give you an indication of my philosophy as coach. We took all our draft picks, we didn’t trade them away and as a club, we will look to add to our list by securing more youth at this year’s draft.

“If the opportunity came up for us to bring a player with a bit more maturity into our football club that could really help our list then we would look at it, it would be remiss of us not to, but it would be at the end of the year. It is not on our agenda right now.”

Following media reports today about the club's list management plans for the end of the season Knights said he will not make any judgements on players’ careers until the end of the season.

“Until I have seen a full season from my players, I will not be making any judgements on their careers,” he said.
 
“No decisions about players’ careers are on my agenda at this stage of the season. It is only Round 8 and we are really positive about the season ahead and that is what we can concentrate on.”
 
 
Knights said that he wants the team to play finals this year and rejected any suggestion the team needed to bottom out to get better in the future.
 
“I have said all along that I believe in this list and these are the players that predominately have to do it for this club – the list that is in place now,"" he said.
 
Mark McVeigh, Sam Lonergan and Dustin Fletcher are three of the promising inclusions that may return to the side this week.

“There may be six to seven players who come into the selection equation this week,” Knights said.

“With the main session still set to be had tomorrow, there is a string of guys who will have to make it through.
 
""Fletcher and McVeigh will be a big boost from an experience point of view. They will both have to get through the session tomorrow with flying colours in order to be selected.

“You also have players like Sam Lonergan and Kyle Reimers – two of our younger guys who have been showing a lot of promise. They could also be available but they have to get through the session.

“The week off has certainly helped our club to be able to bring some bodies back into our team with a bit more maturity.”

Knights is looking forward to the challenge of taking on Sydney in their home territory this week.

“They have been a very convincing football team for a long time now and are going to be a big challenge,” he said.
 
“Even with Hall out, they are playing good footy. They are in pretty good form so we are going to be at the top of our game to beat Sydney.”