ESSENDON is playing the long game with Michael Hurley, intent on taking no risks with the key defender as he recovers from a back injury.
Hurley had expected to be fit to take on Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night after missing last week's win over Richmond with a back spasm, but was left out of Essendon's line-up.
The 24-year-old ran laps at training on Friday morning and consulted the clubs' doctors before leaving the track, and senior assistant coach Simon Goodwin said Hurley was "pretty close".
"He just hasn't done enough training that we'd like for him to come in and perform. He's missed a couple of weeks. And we really want to make sure that his back is 100 per cent and get him back into full training mode and then bring him back into the team," Goodwin said.
"We're really strong with our selection at the moment so we don't want to take risks with players. We haven't all year and we don't want to start now.
"The key for Michael is to get him back doing a full training load and then he'll be able to come back into the team and perform."
Hurley's absence will see Jake Carlisle remain in the backline for another week at least, where he enjoyed a breakout season in 2013 and dominated the Tigers last week.
"We know Jake can play back extremely well and it certainly hasn't confused us. We'd like to develop both Jake and Michael as key forwards and key defenders and have that opportunity to play them at both ends of the ground," Goodwin said.
"We'll continue to tinker with that."
Goodwin spoke to the media as a late replacement for senior coach Mark Thompson, who has gone down with a cold and was being kept away from the team.
The Bombers will fly to Sydney on Friday afternoon while Thompson will take a separate flight this evening or on the day of the game.
"He'll be fine, he's just got a cold and we're trying to keep him away from the group and isolate him for the next 24 hours," Goodwin said.
The Bombers have had a couple of scares in their two previous encounters with the Giants before overpowering them, while also battling against lower-placed sides this season in St Kilda, Brisbane Lions and the Western Bulldogs.
Over the next three weeks they face Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (at Etihad Stadium), and Goodwin said the club was focused on starting well against the Giants.
"That's the challenge to everyone in the footy club to make sure we come out and we consistently play the style of footy we'd like to play. It starts around the contest and I thought we were fantastic in that area last week," he said.
