Mystery surrounds the make-up of the Essendon side that will tackle Fremantle in this Friday night’s Elimination Final. Despite losing just two of its past 10 games, Bombers’ coach Kevin Sheedy has hinted that changes will be made to the side that went down to Collingwood, suggesting that he might even take a first-gamer into the match. ""It wouldn't worry me. Some terrific players have played their first game in finals - Dermott Brereton, Len Thompson, and all of those sorts of players,"" Sheedy said.

Courtney Johns would appear to be the only first-gamer with a chance of playing. He was named an emergency for Essendon last weekend and even warmed up with the team to get a feel for the big-game atmosphere.

""We had our meeting Sunday night and we have pretty much decided our squad of 25. We just need to fine-tune it. To be fair to a few players we will announce the squad to the players, before it goes to the press,"" Sheedy said. ""Well we don't have a lot of pace. So it is awkward to throw pace into the side when you have Ramanauskas, Reynolds and Winderlich all sidelined.""

Team changes aside, Sheedy believes his side is in much better shape than the last time it met the Dockers in Perth. ""We will go over there in the best condition that we have been in for some time,"" he said. ""We won by 10 goals two weeks ago, so why shouldn't we go out there and attack the game?""

""We are a much better side than when we played Fremantle in round 6 earlier this year. With some of the injuries they have got, it is going to hurt them. From the look of it they have lost a fair bit of goal power if you look at some of the players that are injured.""

""Early in the year, lets not forget we had just cleared four premiership players and we had four to five players out with injury. Probably in the first half of the year, we were minus nine premiership players. When you put young players in, it does take that extra 10-15 games to give them confidence to play. You have to get the new batch of players in and train them up.

""It is great to be in the finals, a lot of clubs haven't made it. We have an opportunity still and it is pleasing from our point of view. A lot of our players will be playing in their first final. We just need to play our best footy and I don't think we did that last Friday night. Having played Fremantle two weeks ago, I suppose we know a bit more about how they play.""

Sheedy again pointed to the positives that have been brought to the side as a result of last year’s trade period. ""It is quite amazing (for Adam McPhee) to be playing against the team that sacked him - it doesn't often happen,” Sheedy said.

“He has been a good player for us and he is still learning the game. He and Damian Cupido have been bonus for our club and I think in the end it is a great opportunity for them. They would be pretty happy about playing in a finals’ series in their first year at the club. We are glad we have got them both.""