ESSENDON doesn't believe its finals inexperience will be a factor against Sydney in its elimination final clash on Saturday.

The Bombers head into the cut-throat SCG encounter with nine players making their finals debut, with their most experienced finals campaigners – James Kelly (Geelong) and Brendon Goddard (St Kilda) – coming from rival clubs.

By contrast, the Swans, who made last year's Grand Final, have just two players playing a final for the first time, but Bombers coach John Worsfold said the club was not concerned.

"I'd rather it be this year than next year, which would mean we weren't playing finals. At some point you've got to grow up and they've all said they want to play finals, so it's a great opportunity," Worsfold said on Friday at Essendon's final training session.

"This is just another game they get to play together and learn. We've done a lot of work this year to know what we're all about, and we get the opportunity to bring it again."

Patrick Ambrose, Darcy Parish, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Josh Begley, James Stewart, Conor McKenna, Andrew McGrath, Michael Hartley and Orazio Fantasia are the Bombers who haven't yet featured in a finals series.

The Bombers head to Sydney on Friday with important forward Cale Hooker missing with a leg injury. Hooker was hoping to play but failed to hit the track this week and was ruled out of making his return for the clash, with Worsfold unsure if the 28-year-old was close to a call-up.

"It's hard to say [how close he was] because he obviously didn't get up. We are hopeful that he'll be right next week, but it's not as easy as saying 'he got close this week so he'll be right next week'," he said.

"He's got to be pain-free in any running he's doing, and he hasn't quite got to that point yet."

The Bombers have named forward/ruckman Shaun McKernan as an emergency, with Worsfold saying they had strongly considered him to replace Hooker in attack.

"We've weighed up a lot of different scenarios in picking the side this week, but we like the line-up we've gone with," he said.

The Bombers are confident Fantasia (hamstring) and Michael Hurley (calf) are ready to go after stints out with injury, but Worsfold wouldn't be drawn on whether Hurley would play on superstar Swan Lance Franklin.