Essendon senior coach Ben Rutten spoke to the media at the NEC Hangar on Thursday ahead of the Bombers' round two clash with Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

Below are the five key takeaways from his media conference.

1. Stringer not ready yet

Essendon will resist the temptation to rush back star forward Jake Stringer, who returned from an Achilles injury in a VFL practice match on Saturday.

The All Australian played 60 minutes against Box Hill, booting two goals and splitting his time between midfield and forward.

VFL PLAYER REVIEW: PRACTICE MATCH v BOX HILL

Rutten said the 26-year-old would need another run in Saturday's VFL practice match against Footscray at the NEC Hangar.

"Jake won’t play in the AFL this week. He’ll play another game in the VFL," Rutten said.

"Jake needs to be ready to come in fit and ready to perform, not just for one week but for 22 weeks. I think what we’ve seen is guys who have trained for 10 weeks and are still absolutely cooked at the end of games, so we need to ensure Jake can handle the load."

Stringer and the VFL Bombers will take on Footscray from 12:30pm, with the game open to the public.

2. No special treatment for Fantasia

The Bombers won't get drawn into the external hype surrounding Orazio Fantasia, with the former Don set to line up against his old teammates for the first time on Saturday.

Rutten said Fantasia, who booted four goals in his Power debut last week, was one of many dangermen his side was preparing to negate.

"'Raz' was a popular member of our group and spent a lot of time here, but he’s at Port now and one of 22 or 23 really good players who we’re going to have to combat," he said.

"We know Raz’s game a bit better than we do on the rest of the Port players. Maybe that’s an advantage, maybe that’s not, but I don’t want our players getting distracted about that. We want our guys to play our way."

3. Backing the backmen

With key defenders Michael Hurley and James Stewart sidelined, could Cale Hooker switch back to defence to line up on the dangerous Charlie Dixon?

While open to that possibility, Rutten said he'd ideally keep Hooker forward on Saturday.

"We know Cale’s a pretty capable defender, but we also like what he’s doing up forward for us," he said.

"I’ve got a lot of confidence in Aaron Francis, Jordan Ridley and Jayden Laverde back there, so I’m really confident in their ability to get the job down there, but we also know what Cale can do down there as well.

"It’ll be an interesting one, but we’re keen to back in our defenders at this stage."

4. Plenty to ponder for medical sub choice

The Bombers are yet to decide if they'll choose Tom Cutler as their medical sub for the second consecutive week.

Cutler was the only emergency held over from last week's VFL practice match, but was an unused sub against Hawthorn, meaning he had a weekend without playing.

Rutten said the midfielder's conditioning would be carefully considered before a choice is made on his role on Saturday.

"We’re pretty confident in our performance guys to be able to condition them (players) from a physical perspective," he said.

"He did some extra work after the game and trained really hard this week, but it’s still not the same as a game. We’ll need to weigh all that up and see who else is available and can come over with us.

"'Cuts' (Cutler) will certainly be in the mix to play, but we’ll also consider him as a sub again."

5. The reasons behind Waterman's switch

Alec Waterman's switch to half-back raised eyebrows in the VFL practice match against Box Hill, given the new rookie's instant impact inside 50 in the Bombers' pre-season games.

Rutten said the former Eagle, who is chasing a long-awaited AFL debut, needed to increase his conditioning before being considered for senior footy.

"On the back of last year, we want to increase his level of conditioning so he can play more game time, which will give him more of an opportunity to play AFL footy," he said.

"We also want to see what he can do down back. He’s a pretty competent forward, but it’s also about opportunity and where we seem him potentially adding value for us at AFL level."