ESSENDON'S season is essentially on the line against Hawthorn on Saturday, but coach John Worsfold isn't viewing the game as a 'knockout final'.

The Bombers have got themselves back into top-eight contention with eight wins from their past 10 games, but may need to win their last four games – against Hawthorn, St Kilda, Richmond and Port Adelaide (away) – to make it.

Worsfold took the Bombers to the finals last year for the first time since 2014, but said he wasn't focused on whether a loss against the Hawks would end their top-eight hopes.

"I haven't really thought about it in that regard," Worsfold said on Monday.

"All I've thought about it in the last six to eight weeks is, are we going to maintain the style of footy we've been playing? Are we going to keep improving and see it again each weekend? That's been my focus.

"I haven't really looked at the ladder or thought about what each game means. I do know we don't have much room for error in terms of losing games, but why worry about that when that will take care of itself?"

The Bombers were in the midst of their poor start to the season when they last met the Hawks in round seven and lost by 23 points.

The next week they took on Carlton and fell to the Blues, but have only lost to Richmond and Collingwood since then as they make their charge to the finals.

The Hawks are also battling for a finals position and comfortably beat Fremantle by 59 points at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

"I did watch the game yesterday. The Hawks are going pretty well, they're in good form," Worsfold said.

"Their wins are generally big wins, but for us we want to maintain the type of footy we've been playing and see how it matches up against another good team."

Matt Dea (concussion) and Kyle Langford (whiplash) are expected to be available for the Hawks clash after their knocks in the win over the Swans. Dea was running laps at Essendon's Tullamarine base on Monday morning.

Joe Daniher hasn't played since round eight as he nurses his osteitis pubis injury, which the club originally said would see him miss at least four weeks.

"He's miles off being available yet, and when I say 'miles off', he won't play in the next couple of weeks," Worsfold said.

"He's just tracking on a program that would see him potentially available for the last round or two. If anything delays him, we won't cut corners to get him up."

The coach said if the Bombers lose to the Hawks they wouldn't rule Daniher out for the rest of the season, and that even if they were out of finals contention they would consider playing the star goalkicker.