ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights believes his young side has the ability to bounce back from its disappointing loss to Fremantle on Sunday in time for its virtual elimination final against Hawthorn this weekend.

Knights acknowledged the loss against Fremantle, which left the Bombers with no choice but to win this Saturday's clash with the Hawks in order to make the finals, was disappointing, however, he said he had renewed faith in his players.

"We spoke about [the 54-point loss] briefly, and I think you have to as a group. I spoke candidly after the game and then we had a five or 10 minute discussion on Monday," he said on Tuesday.

"Then it was all about the great opportunity we have of playing Hawthorn this week and the situation we're in.

"That generated some enthusiasm and spirit again pretty quickly."

Knight said while the players would be treated to a reasonably light week following their second trip to Perth in a month, he wouldn't use their recent scheduling as any kind of justification on the outcome of the upcoming match.

"I've never been one to make excuses on six-day breaks, five-day breaks, four-day breaks. It's irrelevant as far as I'm concerned," he said.

"We're in round 22, both teams have played a lot of footy, both teams have probably had injuries during the year. It seems a pretty level playing field to me. There's no issue with the break or travel."

Overall, Knights said he was looking forward to the opportunity for his players to be involved in a "massive" deciding game.

"If you said at the start of the year we were going to play in round 22 for a piece of finals action against the reigning premier, it's pretty exciting," he said.

"With where our group's at and with the development phase we're at, it's really big for our group that we're going to playing in front of a huge crowd with the stakes so high on what's on the end of a win or a loss.

"It's really exciting for our group, and I look forward to the 22 men that get selected to do the club proud and give their best effort."