Everitt and Playfair have been hampered by knee and hamstring injuries respectively, while Mathews’ career tally has been stuck on 196 games while he worked toward peak form in the reserves.
Jesse White drops back to the emergency list after a debut to remember. Luke Ablett is out with a calf strain, and Nick Davis has been dropped.
Nick Smith and Luke Brennan are the other emergencies.
The unbeaten Bulldogs named Wayde Skipper, Callan Ward and Stephen Tiller in an extended squad on Thursday, but all three drop back to the emergency list as the side stays unchanged.
Injury hit Essendon has made six changes as it looks to arrest a worrying slide.
As promised earlier in the week, three Bombers – Darcy Daniher, Jarrod Atkinson and David Myers – will debut with Tom Hislop, Leroy Jetta and Jay Neagle also into the side.
Dustin Fletcher (groin), Adam Ramanauskas (virus), Jason Winderlich (groin), Kyle Reimers (foot), Jason Laycock (omitted) and Tayte Pears (omitted) all come out of the side that fell to Collingwood on Anzac Day.
Tom Bellchambers, Jason Johnson and Pears are the emergencies.
Port Adelaide has made just the one forced change for Sunday’s match at Telstra Dome with young forward Robbie Gray coming in for Chad Cornes who will miss three to four weeks with a broken finger.
Nathan Lonie, Paul Stewart and Nick Lower make the emergency list.
Matthew Bate is back for the Demons as they look for their first win of the season against Fremantle at the MCG on Sunday.
Bate, 20, is joined by Matthew Whelan and Colin Garland, while Lynden Dunn and , Daiel Bell (both omitted), and Colin Sylvia (hamstring) are all out of the team defeated by Brisbane last week.
Bell and Dunn are emergencies along with Simon Buckley.
Wayward forward Chris Tarrant has earned a recall for Fremantle and his inclusion is one of five changes for the clash.
Des Headland, Mark Johnson, Andrew Foster and Brock O’Brien all come in for what will be Aaron Sandilands’ 100th AFL game, while Antoni Grover (thigh), Roger Hayden (hamstring), Josh Carr (suspended), Daniel Gilmore (omitted) and Clayton Hinkley (omitted) will all miss.
Gilmore has been named as an emergency with Robert Warnock and Paul Duffield.
