Essendon senior coach Ben Rutten has revealed developing and playing a designated tagger is a constant discussion point between he and his coaching staff.

The topic of the Bombers' lack of a midfield stopper flared after Saturday's loss to Brisbane at Marvel Stadium, where star midfielder and Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale amassed 41 disposals in a game-winning display.

Many pundits have criticised the Bombers’ lack of flexibility to instigate a negating player, supposedly highlighted by Brisbane coach Chris Fagan’s decision to switch Jarrod Berry to then-leading ball-getter Zach Merrett, nullifying his effect on the game after half-time.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 program, Rutten said he would ideally like to develop a tagging option in his side, but it could potentially come at a cost to the Dons' gameplay.

“It’s a great question and one that we’re constantly discussing as a coaching group what the pros and cons are because there’s always a cost whenever you make a move like that as a tag,” Rutten said.

“I would like to continue to develop within our playing list the ability to do that, whether it’d be a full-blown tag or more so to close someone out of a stoppage for a period of time.

“There’re no guarantees if that works because with someone like Lachie Neale, it wasn’t like he was a spare player, we had players on him. (There were) Guys like Darcy Parish who got his fair share around the ball as well.”

One of the major cons Rutten outlined with introducing a tagger is the inability to field all of the Bombers’ prime movers around the contest, which could potentially impact the side’s scoring ability.

Rutten said careful consideration needed to be had to not rush a decision given the structure Essendon is trying to implement.

“I think it depends on your style,” he said.

“There are teams who are one v one, which would make it a bit easier to play a tagger or a run-with role. We’re kind of developing more of a system-based game and the costs are if we play a designated tagger, we don’t play one of Merrett, Shiel, McGrath and Stringer (around the ball) as well. We’ve got to weigh that up.

“We’re weighing up whether we need to take one of our prime movers out of a stoppage when we actually need to try and score to win the game, so that’s the thing we’re discussing as coaches.”

The Bombers will again be tested against one of the best midfields in the competition when they face reigning premier Melbourne at the MCG on Friday night.

They'll be without Merrett, who will undergo surgery after suffering a syndesmosis injury, but could regain Dylan Shiel from a side strain.

Stay tuned for a performance and injury update today.