Restricting Essendon’s style of play will be a high priority for the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night when the two clubs go to battle for four points.
Young midfielder Jack Macrae said the Bomber’s broad talent is not lost on the team, and that they will prepare accordingly.
“We know the talent that they have on their list and when you let them play their style of footy they are almost impossible to stop,” Macrae said.
“We are going to go through all the requirements that we need to and we are pretty confident in putting in a good, solid performance.”
A solid start to the season has seen Clubs put more time into the 19-year-old, but Macrae insists the club is focussed on having multiple contributors through the midfield, and not on who specifically is being tagged.
“We talk about… having an even spread across the midfield group and looking after blokes like Griffen and Liberatore who get a lot more attention than I do each week," he said
“We are pretty confident in having an even spread across the mids and as all the best teams do, they look after their best players.”
Stewart Crameri will also line up against his former side Essendon for the first time but Macrae said the forward was going about business as usual.
“Obviously it’s a big game individually for him, coming up against his old mates who he still speaks really fondly of,” he said.
“We will make sure to give him a few kicks early hopefully and hopefully we can get the win.”