Essendon can’t afford to put too much focus on Geelong’s Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield according to former coach Robert Shaw.

The Bombers and the Cats meet in the first ever ‘Country Game’ at the MCG this afternoon.

Shaw said too much attention on the high profile Cats, will open the door for another opposition midfielder.

“They worry me, but what worries me more is the depth of the Geelong midfield,” Shaw said.

“If you focus too much on them - Caddy, Duncan is a very good player, Murdoch off a wing, they’ve brought in Gregson.

“They’ve got numerous options and they bat very, very deep.

“A total focus on Selwood and Dangerfield will see someone else bob up and hurt you badly.”

Shaw doesn’t expect the Bombers to assign a hard tag on either Selwood or Dangerfield.

“They’ve got to go head to head,” he said.

“It’s a great learning experience for (Zach) Merrett and these sort of boys going through there.

“(David) Zaharakis will probably go head to head with someone like (Joel) Selwood, I don’t mind that at all.

“There won’t be too much tagging, if any tagging.”

James Kelly and Mathew Stokes will line up against their former side for the first time.

The fair won five premiership medals between them at the Cats, while Mitch Brown will also make his first appearance against his old team.

Shaw said the insight the trio provides into the Geelong set-up should be simplified.

“Sometimes too much information can scramble young players minds,” Shaw said.

“They’ll know everything about Geelong, everything possible.

“They’ll be able to tell Essendon every little bit about Chris Scott’s game plan, what players don’t like, what they do like, where they prefer to play.

“But the problem with that is it does scramble minds.

“Two or three points from Kelly or Stokes – don’t make it too complex.”