Essendon selectors will face a tough night at the selection table this week when they sit down to finalise the side for this Saturday's Preliminary Final clash with Hawthorn. The tall Hawthorn forward line might mean the selectors will be forced to include another tall defender - Mark Bolton, Aaron Henneman or Jonathon Robran are the likely candidates. The other dilemma for the selectors is who they will replace the suspended Matthew Lloyd with. Much will depend on the team structure and the Bombers game plan but either way there will be some very important decisions to be made.

The Hawthorn forward line can include Ben Dixon, John Barker, Jade Rawlings, Nick Holland, Nathan Thompson and Kris Barlow at any one time. Trent Croad and Mark Graham have also been known to push forward so the Essendon defence will be stretched to the limit. Dustin Fletcher, Dean Solomon and probably Danny Jacobs will take three of the talls. The Essendon coaching staff would probably want Sean Wellman to continue playing his running role of half back meaning one more tall might need to be found.

""We will have to have a look at that and make some decisions on which we want to go,"" Essendon football manager Matthew Drain said. ""We have some tall defenders we will look at but it really will depend on which way we want to go about trying to win the game. You can't be totally dictated but what you think they might be doing with their team.""

Drain said the Essendon coaching panel had been very impressed by what they saw at Football Park on Saturday night. ""It was an excellent win - it is never easy to win over there and I would imagine it would become even harder in a final,"" Drain said. ""Hawthorn is a very good side and they have beaten most of the top sides this season. We won't be reading anything into our win over them earlier in the season. Both sides had a lot of players out so you really can't read anything into it.""

Essendon will be training today at Windy Hill at 3.00pm and at the MCG on Wednesday at 3.00pm. The week's preparations will wind up with a final training session on Friday afternoon at Windy Hill.