Essendon is preparing to take a close to full strength line-up to Bendigo for the side’s final JLT Community Series match before the home and away season gets underway.

The Bombers play Geelong on Sunday and could welcome back Cale Hooker, who is yet to feature in the pre-season matches.

“He’ll certainly train this week, it’s just whether we think he’s done enough football training to play against Geelong,” Performance Coach Mark Harvey said.

“If not he’ll certainly play the following week in the VFL practice match.

“When you go through a rehab program you need to do the quality of football training so you’re ready for a game.”

Harvey said the Club had to be mindful of preparing Hooker for the entire season, rather than just round one.

“At the moment Joe Daniher has only just come back into the team as well, [James] Stewart’s working down there as a key forward, so we’d like to get them there as soon as possible,” Harvey said.

“If he [Hooker] trains well this week, there may be an opportunity that he plays, but probably next week.”

Michael Hurley injured his ankle against Gold Coast eight days ago but will line-up against the Cats if he is able to get through training this week. 

The game shapes as a full dress rehearsal for the Bombers ahead of their round one opener against Hawthorn.

Teams are permitted to use six on the bench this week, but with an eye on round one, that may be a temptation the Dons resist.

“Every side is now in this last week of games, we’ll probably play with four on the bench,” Harvey said.

“We’ll be tuning ourselves up for the game against Hawthorn at the MCG which we’re looking forward to.”

The Bombers could also look to use next week’s VFL practice match as a last minute tune-up for players in contention for a round one spot. 

“A lot of teams are in the same boat with players that have had interrupted pre-seasons,” Harvey said. 

“A lot of our games have been well spaced … that has been difficult to manage.

“We might have ten players that may play in that game, it’s just a matter of getting them ready to be available for selection in round one.”