Ruckman Matthew Allan aside, Kevin Sheedy admitted after the game he was disappointed with the contribution of his bench players against Melbourne. Whether Sheedy was playing mind games and simply wanting them to understand that the team needs more from them or whether it will be addressed at selection remains to be seen.

""We were really disappointed that we didn’t get a lot out of the bench today,"" Sheedy said post match. ""I was a bit disappointed in one or two players who didn’t contribute. The players on the ground were very good.""

Matthew Allan, Brent Stanton, Nathan Lovett-Murray and Ben Haynes started on the pine for the Bombers. Matthew Allan came on and did a terrific job for his team collecting 11 disposals and getting 21 hit outs. It was instrumental in the Bombers negating the influence of Jeff White.

Stanton, Lovett-Murray and Haynes didn’t get as much of the ball as the coach would obviously have liked – in fact they had just nine possessions between them. What would have disappointed Sheedy is that he knows they are capable of much better.

The post-match ""rocket"" doesn’t mean they won’t be there against Geelong in the first semi-final on Saturday night either. Sheedy and the match committee will want to see these players cop it on the chin and work exceptionally hard on the training track this week.

Essendon assistant coach Mark Harvey said selection was complicated by a number of factors but he said the most important consideration was obviously the opposition. ""Geelong is a hard running side and we have to be aware of that and we are playing them at night so that also throws things around a bit,"" Harvey said.

""We need 22 players to make a contribution and if you don’t then obviously we need to have a look at what we do in terms of selection. A lot was left to the starting 18 on Saturday and we will need to monitor them closely this week in terms of recovery.""

Harvey said there were a number of players that would come under consideration this week including retiring Bomber veteran Joe Misiti who has now fully recovered from a bruised knee.

""Joe is a smart player and has played a lot of finals football. That is something that will count in his favour. I think in the finals matches we have seen so far, the experienced players have really done the job for teams. Joe is certainly in the mix,"" Harvey said.

Harvey said other players that would be considered included Mark Alvey, Kepler Bradley, Ted Richards and Jason Winderlich. The ‘smokey’ could be Andrew Lovett – the rookie who has now completed his two-match suspension.