ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights says his side won't be intimidated by its unsuccessful recent record against the Western Bulldogs when the two sides meet at Docklands on Friday night.

The Bombers have lost five clashes with the Dogs since their last win in round 10, 2005, however, Knights said he wasn't concerned about the past and was more focused on the new challenge coming his way.

"There's been a couple of games where at three-quarter time, the game was in the balance on both occasions and they got us late," he said from Windy Hill on Tuesday. "We were in those games but we didn't finish the job.

"With a young group, we don't really have that attitude of what happened last time because we've had such a turnover of players.

"We've got a lot of new fresh faces. Michael Hurley playing at full-back and Tayte Pears playing at centre half-back … I don't think that was the case even last year.

"We're a fresh group and we just attack the contest and treat every game on its merit. We don't get bogged down too much with what's happened previously."

Knights predicted Friday night's game to be a fast one but said the Bombers must match the Dogs defensively after their impressive performances over the past two months.

He also said the players were looking forward to another big test after their weekend win over the Sydney Swans at the SCG.

"The challenges do come think and fast, and going to Sydney last week and playing a really tough side that has a rich history of success in finals was a good achievement," he said.

"But when you look six days ahead and you've got a team like the Western Bulldogs to confront, it's really exciting for our group to again come up against a real quality side on Friday night football."

Knights said while it was pleasing to be well placed for a finals assault this year, there was still work to be done to ensure the Bombers play into September for the first time since 2004.

"I think 12 wins [to make the eight] would be a fair call. On any given year, you should be aiming to win more games than you lose, and if that is the reward of getting the result you need, so be it," he said.

"We're 8-7, only one game ahead of the ledger at the moment, which is good but there is still plenty of work to go and plenty of hard footy to be played.

"We've given ourselves an opportunity, but that's all it is. It doesn't guarantee anything for the last seven rounds.

"We're under no illusions that we'll have to be a fair bit better than we have been previously to succeed.

"At this stage last year, we were well out of the equation. We lost eight in a row last year, and when you do that, you're not going to have a successful season."

Knights said he expected few changes to his line up, but named Hayden Skipworth and Nathan Lovett-Murray as players in line for potential recalls.

He said Bachar Houli and David Myers were likely to remain in the VFL this week while Angus Monfries would miss again with a hamstring.