Essendon is set to enter its clash against Fremantle unchanged at Optus Stadium on Saturday.
The Bombers recorded an impressive comeback victory over Adelaide in round one and coach John Worsfold said he was happy to stick with the winning team.
“We were obviously pretty happy with the overall performance of the team, and individually the players were happy with the way they all played their roles,” Worsfold said.
“There wasn’t any real necessity to change the team, but we certainly did give consideration to players that we had available.”
Worsfold said he was impressed by the performances of many of his players in last weekend’s VFL practice match against Werribee including ruckman Matthew Leuenberger who has been added to the squad as an emergency.
“Leuey’s in good touch, he performed really well in the VFL. We’ve got no doubt that we’ll be needing Leuey to step up and play some really good footy for us this year.
“He’ll come across just in case, just to give us some coverage. But we were really pleased with T-Bell last week and we’re lucky to have some solid ruck stocks.”
While Worsfold said it was important for his new-look team to continue to learn how best to play alongside each other, he said he expected several missing players to put pressure on those already in the side.
Injured trio Orazio Fantasia, David Myers and Patrick Ambrose are three Bombers Worsfold said he thinks can push for selection soon.
“It is important to jell together, but obviously we’ve got some players out of the side at the moment that will be pretty quickly pushing to get some opportunities.
“There is pressure on the guys to maintain good form in the senior side if they want to hold that spot.”
Fremantle have named young gun Adam Cerra to make his debut on Saturday and Worsfold said the decision would not affect the way Essendon prepares for the match.
“It’s always nice when you hear of young players getting their opportunities and Fremantle have obviously identified that he’s ready to go,” he said.
“It doesn’t change our roles, we’ll certainly do our homework on all of our possible opponents this week.
“We’re ready to just come out and play with the intensity that we want to maintain the standard at.”
Worsfold said he expected the Dockers to come out firing after suffering a 50-point loss to Port Adelaide last week, and said consistency is the main area of improvement for the Bombers.
“Every AFL game challenges you in a lot of different ways – every team brings their own strengths.
“We know what Fremantle are very, very good at and what they want to bring and the way they want to try and play the game, but the challenge for us is to stay focused on where we want to get better.
“Overall we did some really good things against Adelaide, but we didn’t maintain the consistency at the really high level for as long as we’d like, so that’s what we’re working towards.
“This will be a totally different game again and one that we’ve got to be ready to play instinctively and with intensity and hold each other accountable to that.”
Worsfold – who captained West Coast to two premierships and coached the Eagles to one more – said he was excited to return to Perth to experience the city’s new stadium on Saturday.
“It will be brand new in terms of my experience of spending 25 years in footy in WA.
“Everyone is raving about the new stadium, it’s obviously been a big thing for the locals, it’s going to be great for the AFL and we’re looking forward to it.”
FINAL TEAM:
FB - Dea, Hurley, Hartley
HB - Saad, Brown, Goddard
C - Zaharakis, Z. Merrett, Parish
HF - Stringer, Hooker, McDonald-Tipungwuti
F - Begley, Daniher, Stewart
Foll - Bellchambers, Heppell, Smith
I/C - McGrath, Langford, Green, McKenna
Emerg - J. Merrett, Redman, Baguley, Leuenberger
