In this week's match preview, Matthew Knights says he's comfortable playing emerging youngsters over more experienced players if they earn their spot and show endeavour and effort when they get their chance.

Knights said he is confident second-gamers David Zaharakis and Michael Quinn can back up their encouraging performances against Fremantle and contribute to the team.

The coach also reveals his disappointment that the side will be without Adam McPhee through suspension but says he is confident Leroy Jetta can add flair to the Bombers in his first game for the year.

The Essendon team is:

Backs: H.Slattery Daniher Hocking

Half-backs: Dempsey Ryder Fletcher

Centres: Winderlich Stanton Lovett

Half-forwards: Monfries Lloyd Dyson

Forwards: Skipworth Lucas Davey

Followers: Hille Watson Zaharakis

Interchange: Jetta Quinn Pears Myers

 

Ins: Leroy Jetta

Outs: Adam McPhee (susp)

 

Read Knights’ preview below:

 

FORM LINE

The form line of our side has been a little bit irregular over the past couple of weeks. It was a little disappointing in Round 1 when we went over to Port Adelaide with a plan to execute and we didn’t quite get it right. The second week was fantastic. I thought our form was good across all four quarters even though there were times when we did lapse a little bit. I thought for the majority of the game we held sway and at the end of the game we had over 100 disposals more than Fremantle so it was a pretty good dominance from a disposal perspective.

I have watched Carlton live for the past two weeks and they are very sure with their kicking. Their skills are very good at the moment and they are hitting a lot of their targets. They are the number one efficiency side for kicking and handballing in the competition.  Once they get the ball they are really looking after it and keeping it and that is making them quite difficult for opposition teams to play against. Their form line is great after beating Richmond and Brisbane and we need to bring our maximum effort to win.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Chris Judd is probably the first player who springs to mind when listing players we need to negate this week, however Carlton has a number of players who are sneaking under the radar a little bit. Their young defender Aaron Josephs is looking promising, Kade Simpson has been playing very good footy  on the wing and Richard Hadley has probably complimented Murphy, Gibbs and Judd in the midfield so we will be keeping an eye on them this week.

From an Essendon perspective, it was really exciting to see the emergence of Alwyn Davey and Jason Winderlich last week. To see them play and look free in their movement was fantastic considering what they have come through in terms of their knee and back injuries.

Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas are also on the verge of hitting top form. Their effort was really good last week although there were times they didn’t get the reward. I think they are very close to hitting some good form so it will be very exciting to see them taking some strong marks inside fifty.

INS AND OUTS
We are a little disappointed that Adam McPhee will miss the match this week as he serves a one-match suspension. He was in good form last week and added a lot of pressure in addition to kicking some goals. The fact that we were able to reduce the penalty from three weeks to one is probably a good result in the end and I think the club has done a reasonably good job to come away with that result.

Leroy Jetta will come in as his replacement this week after spending a bit of time playing with the Bendigo Bombers over the last month. We have really focused on building up his match conditioning so when he comes into the AFL side he will make more of an impact. He adds a bit of zing to our game and a bit of x-factor so it is good to have him included this week against Carlton.

TOPIC OF THE WEEK

With young players, you are never sure when they will make their debut or when they will break into the team. It just so happened that because of various circumstances, we have had three first-gamers in the first two rounds. Usually teams have their more experienced players up and running and it makes it difficult for younger players to break their way into a senior side but we have had three debuts- Michael Hurley, David Zaharakis and Michael Quinn - and they have been really outstanding in the way they have gone about it.

It is a great thing for David Zaharakis and Essendon Football Club to have received a Rising Star nomination this week. We thought Michael Hurley was right in the running the previous week when he had a solid game on Warren Tredrea but was pipped by Daniel Rich. This week’s nomination is great for David and great for the club. Because he is a bright, buoyant young man and it is great to have those guys in the team. His nature is very extroverted and he obviously enjoys playing footy and enjoys getting around his teammates so he was like a breath of fresh air for our boys.

The way Michael Quinn played last week gave us a good understanding that he understands AFL football and he has got a natural feel for the game and now he just has to work hard on the little things to make sure he polishes his game.

While it is only one game and we understand that young players will go up and down a little bit, we do expect David and Michael to keep their effort and endeavour at the same intensity as last week. If they don’t get the same number of disposals or they don’t have the same impact on the game, that is okay but they must show the same commitment to the footy.

My gut feel is that it would be a little while before we see another debut this year but the game changes so quickly and opportunities open up so quickly and, as I understand, Michael Still is showing some really energy and enthusiasm at Bendigo and taking some contested marks and Tyson Slattery played in the NAB Cup and aquitted himself well so you just never know when the next opportunity will come.