Essendon coach John Worsfold says the Bombers’ best football can take it up to reigning premier West Coast when the sides clash in the first elimination final on Thursday, September 5.
While things didn’t go to plan for the Bombers when they last faced the Eagles in round 14, Hawthorn’s convincing victory over West Coast on the weekend and the Dons’ previous win against the home side last year have set somewhat of a blueprint for success.
Toughness in the contest and speed on the outside are clear correlations between those two victories and have been key catalysts behind a number of Essendon’s wins this year, and Worsfold expects the Dons to be a worthy challenger next week.
“All I am really keen to do is go over and give it our best shot, our best effort,” Worsfold said on Monday.
“We’ve shown that when we’re playing our best footy we can take on all of the good teams in the comp, so that’s our focus.
“What we do on Thursday week is all that counts.”
Worsfold says he isn’t wary of unsettling the chemistry of the side by making too many changes to the line-up next week, with several important Bombers in the mix to return to the side.
Captain Dyson Heppell (foot), defender Cale Hooker (ill) and dangerous forwards Jake Stringer (soreness) and Orazio Fantasia (hip) all missed Essendon’s narrow loss to Collingwood last Friday.
“We’ll just pick the team that we think is best equipped to play well and represent the club. If that means there’s a lot of changes, then it will be what it is.
“We’ll definitely have a few players that didn’t play on Friday night available and we’ll be weighing up their inclusion.
“We (will) see how they’re tracking. ‘Hooksy’ was going to play but got a bit crook – he’ll now be really good going into the next two weeks. It’s the same with Fantasia and Stringer.”
Heppell declared himself “ready to go” on Monday having turned a corner in the management of an ongoing foot injury, but the chance of a return for star defender Michael Hurley is less certain.
Worsfold confirmed Hurley had suffered damage to his right shoulder during the loss to the Magpies, with possible selection of the two-time All Australian set to “come down to the wire” next week.
Michael Hurley's night is over after injuring his right shoulder late in the second quarter.#AFLPiesDons pic.twitter.com/zfcZdWK0zh
— AFL (@AFL) August 23, 2019
The Bombers will have a chance to break a long-standing drought of finals success when they take on the Eagles, but Worsfold isn’t concerned by the past and said the team is well prepared to give it a red-hot crack.
“It’s important for these players, it’s important for this club and it’s important for these fans that we go over there and just play our best footy.
“We want to go over there and win just for the sake of having bit of a good time, enjoying it and challenging ourselves to play our absolute best footy.
“I believe we’ve prepped the team as well as we can going into this finals series, with hopefully as many of our top-line players available (as possible) going into the game and we’re looking forward to Thursday night.”
