Adapting to the unique timing of a round four bye, Brad Scott is hoping the extended break will hold the Dons in good stead when they face Melbourne for Gather Round.

Despite injuries to Jye Caldwell and Tom Edwards, the Bombers could be boosted by the returns of several players in the coming weeks, starting with Saturday night’s clash at Adelaide Oval.

Scott will be hoping to regain Archie Perkins and Elijah Tsatas, with two more experienced players in Darcy Parish and Peter Wright also aiming to return to play this week via managed minutes in the VFL.

“It’s a strange feeling having Opening Round postponed and then a bye in round four,” Scott told the media on Wednesday morning.

“We’ve actually taken the opportunity to do a lot of work on the way we want to play, reviewing what we’ve done, how we want to improve.

“We’ve probably got quite a few we’ll look to return to play either in the VFL this week – Tsatas and Perkins were obviously in the AFL side, so they’re right in the mix – but Peter Wright we hope will play some minutes in the VFL, subject to how he trains today.

“(Parish) is progressing, he’s right at the stage now where we’ve got to make the decision on some match practice.

“He’ll play some VFL before he plays AFL, ideally that’s this week but this main training session is going to inform a lot of that decision.”

The Bombers and Demons enter round five with plenty to play for – an opportunity awaits Scott’s side to even the ledger at 2-2, while Melbourne are looking for their first win of the season.

External pressure has been placed on both Clubs at different stages throughout the opening month of the campaign, but Scott remains fully aware of the challenge the Demons present at their best.

“They’ve got a lot of capability in their side, their best is still very, very good,” Scott said.

“I look at the game in pretty specific detail and they’ve still got an enormous amount of capability. We’re not in a position where the other team’s under more pressure or struggling more than we are.

“We’re just more focused on what we want to do with an acute awareness of what Melbourne’s capable of.”

Essendon’s Wednesday training session held a strong turnout from the Bomber faithful, who were a key touchpoint in Scott’s press conference.

Factoring in the Club’s young list and their potential for on-field growth, the Senior Coach lauded the members’ support and emphasised the importance of continuing to back the players in.

“When I was external to Essendon, something I was always very jealous of or admired (was) the fact that no matter how the Club was going, the supporter base is just always there,” Scott said.

“They just stick with us through thick and thin and that doesn’t mean we take it for granted, anything but.

“When everything’s going well, the support generally grows at most Clubs, but the irony is that when the players need the support the most is when they’re struggling and that’s what we’d love our fans to do.

“A big part of what I want to achieve here is to make our fans and members proud of their team again and we’re working extremely hard to do that."