Essendon’s plague of injuries has continued this week with Jobe Watson and Mark McVeigh to miss but Matthew Knights says the Bombers’ final game of the season will give Essendon’s emerging players a chance to deliver on potential.

“Because of the way things have turned out, we’ve potentially got seventeen players unavailable through injury, so it gives our young guys an amazing opportunity to play and just show their wares,” Knights said.

“I suppose the main aspect we’re looking at tomorrow night is that we get a great opportunity to look at a lot of younger players that haven’t had much experience in the game - whether that be Stewart Crameri or Marcus Marigliani.

“Tomorrow night’s game is about making sure our players perform to their maximum and we get another chance to have a look at them under some fierce heat.”

Knights says the experience will be vital for Essendon’s young players ahead of what looms as a gruelling pre-season.

“We’re going into this weekend’s game and the off-season under no illusions about how much work has to be done and how many different areas of the football club we have to look at to get better,” he said.

Knights said he expected the Bombers to be very active during the trade period with their focus on recruiting a key midfielder.

“I think we’ll certainly be very active, you’ve got to look for opportunities at any time to improve your list and better yourself so we’ll certainly be looking at that aspect,” Knights said.

“We’ve also got a strong focus on the draft and we have drafted really aggressively in the last three years to try and start afresh with this club.

“We’ll certainly be putting enormous time into making sure we draft really well again this season.”