Essendon senior coach John Worsfold has praised his charges for standing up when challenged during their unbeaten start to the 2020 season.

Despite ebbs and flows during their six-point victories over Fremantle and Sydney, the third-placed Bombers are the only side to have led at every minute in the opening two rounds.

Worsfold said he was proud of his players’ resolve, particularly interstate against the Swans on Sunday.

“Overall, they’ve been satisfying games. I’m really pleased with the way we’ve started our season,” Worsfold said on Wednesday. 

“We’ve played pretty good opposition and we’re not going to dominate 100 minutes of footy. There were periods where Sydney really challenged us, and we didn’t let them get right on top. 

“They had their moments, and we still defended really strong and grabbed our opportunities when we started to get our turn to score. 

“To go up against Sydney, not many people really thought we were a great chance of winning up there, but we did the job.”

The Bombers will be striving for a 3-0 start to the season for the first time since 2013 when they host Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday. 

Their quest could be helped by the return of Orazio Fantasia, who trained today but will need to get through Friday’s main session before a decision is made on his availability.

Dashing half-back Conor McKenna is also available after the Bombers decided not to risk him last week given his interrupted preparation returning from Ireland. 

Worsfold said he was confident Fantasia, who suffered a quad strain a fortnight ago, would put his hand up for selection.

"He's going to be very close. Obviously Friday is main training and that's when he'll have to get through and prove to us that he's available for selection but it all appears to be tracking pretty well," he said.

"But really I couldn't say that he will be available until we see him on Friday."