Essendon is playing the AFL's hottest team in an elimination final on Saturday afternoon, but Brendon Goddard says the Bombers aren't daunted by facing Sydney at the SCG.

The Swans have won 14 of their past 16 matches and will start hot favourites, but Goddard says the Bombers will take confidence from their after-the-siren loss at the same venue in round 14.

In that Friday night nailbiter, Essendon led by 20 points deep into the fourth quarter, and it took a Gary Rohan mark in the goalsquare in the dying seconds to deliver the home team a one-point win.

"We'll take some confidence out of our last performance up there," Goddard told Melbourne radio station RSN927.

"I don't buy into the theory of nothing to lose, because we do, it's a final, we've got something to lose.

"We're not daunted by it whatsoever, we're excited by the challenge to go up there.

"You can't pick and choose in finals.

"It's a matter of anywhere, any time, any place."

Essendon won six of its last eight matches in the home and away season but haven't beaten the Swans in Sydney since 2009.

"We all know finals is a different beast," he said.

"When you do have the top eight teams, the game tends to look different too.

"Not one team is willing to budge and it's a really tight contest, a lot of the time it's low scoring, contested, as we all know."