Essendon remain undecided over whether to make the full raft of changes to unleash their preferred 22 against fellow unbeaten AFL side Geelong on Friday night.
The Bombers will have injured stars Dustin Fletcher, Michael Hurley, Dyson Heppell, Jake Carlisle and Jason Winderlich available, and ruckman Paddy Ryder back from suspension to add to the side which beat GWS Giants last weekend.
But coach James Hird remains unsure whether making that many changes to the side for the Etihad Stadium is feasible – a decision he and his match committee will make later on Thursday.
“We’ll wait and see … I think it’s the quality of the individuals and how many weeks they’ve missed,” Hird said when asked about the number of changes he was planning to make.
“A lot of the guys we could potentially bring in have played a lot of football with each other.
“They’re very senior players, they’re very good players.”
The Bombers are also wrestling with the fitness of midfielder Brent Stanton, who injured a groin in the GWS match and was substituted.
“If Brent’s fit and ready to play, he’ll play. If he’s not, he won’t,” Hird said.
“Brent copped a fairly heavy knock to his groin. There’s a fair bit of bleeding in there – we’ll see whether that frees up.”
Geelong have had the wood on the Bombers in recent encounters.
But both teams go into the match unbeaten in their opening six matches.