Essendon's ninth top-up signing Nathan Grima could make his return to the AFL this weekend as the Bombers also weigh up blooding a father-son prospect at the top level.
Grima was the Bombers' second last 'replacement' player added to their list following the season-long bans to 12 of their players for anti-doping breaches in January.
The former Kangaroos defender retired last year after persistent back injuries cut short his career at 86 games, but the 30-year-old played in Essendon's VFL side over the weekend and will be considered to take on Geelong on Saturday.
"Grimesy reckons he's ready, he's said that for a few weeks. He's upright out there, so that's good. He's ready to go," coach John Worsfold said on Monday.
"We've been pretty happy with Michael Hartley, so we've got to weigh all that up, but Grima's available this week. We didn't really consider him for selection last week [as we] wanted to get him as fit as we possibly could first.
"It's obviously a brilliant story to see him feeling good physically, because his back injury was a pretty serious. The fact that he's back playing footy at all is great news."
It would be Grima's first game in the AFL since North Melbourne's preliminary final loss to the Sydney Swans in 2014.
And he might not be the only new face in Essendon colours, with the Bombers debating whether to upgrade rookie Jake Long to the senior list after a run of impressive performances at VFL level.
The son of former Essendon champion and Norm Smith medallist Michael Long, the wiry forward can be automatically elevated as part of the list concessions provided to the club following the WADA bans.
Worsfold said Long was fighting for a position alongside Irish forward Conor McKenna, with both being discussed at the selection table last week having stepped out for the club during the NAB Challenge.
"Jake's form has been really good, but so has Conor McKenna's, so those two guys are putting their name up really strongly for selection. They were definitely looked at last week and they both performed pretty well on the weekend," he said.
Jayden Laverde is also in the mix for a return to the Bombers' AFL line-up after an interrupted pre-season campaign with an ankle concern.
"He ran the game out pretty well over the weekend, so again our challenge is we're pretty keen to give some of these guys an opportunity, but when they're really ready to go, not just when they've had one blowout and they're going to struggle," Worsfold said.
We think he's pretty much ready to go now."
Essendon was unable to back up its surprising round-two win over Melbourne, falling to Port Adelaide last week by 61 points.
The Bombers will continue to mix and match their team with youth and experienced additions, with Worsfold saying the club is still working out where it stands in the competition.
"There's the potential that our peaks and troughs are a bit more exaggerated [than other clubs]," Worsfold said.
"We're not the only club that's going to go through that, some of the great teams in the competition have those weeks as well. But for us, we're not really sure still where we sit.
"There's a lot of challenges about learning where we're at, and we're going to throw players around through the year and see what the playing group offers each other."
