Essendon coach John Worsfold denies their AFL clash with GWS carries special significance, despite Bombers great Matthew Lloyd saying it's win or bust.
The Bombers host the Giants on Thursday night on Marvel Stadium and must rebound from an ugly 35-point loss to West Coast.
With a 6-7 win-loss record from 14 rounds, Lloyd said if Essendon didn't stand up against GWS they wouldn't play finals - and the club should start looking for a new coach.
"They've got to win seven of their last nine (to play finals) and if they don't play finals, yes, I would make the change," Lloyd said on Channel Nine's Footy Classified.
"Another one of those losses won't be tolerated; they were so far off AFL standard on the weekend it wasn't funny.
"If they lose on Thursday night it's season over.
"I'd be looking at other options (to coach) and if there's a better man out there, they should make that change."
Worsfold said every game was important to their finals hopes, not just their Giants match, and he didn't feel his team had to prove a point against a premiership contender.
"Really good athletes are driven to perform at their best every week; they don't play lesser teams and think let's go easy or better teams and think let's go harder," he said on Monday morning.
"We want to prove that we are continually improving."
"We've said that every week. The last three weeks have been pretty important games for us,."
Lloyd felt the Bombers were "going backwards", and lacked organisation against the Eagles, and he didn't give them much chance against the third-placed Giants.
"That is a disorganised team that when the pressure in on, they cannot get their run and carry going, they fall apart and it happened again on Thursday night," he said.
Worsfold said it was unlikely that star forward Jake Stringer would be available to face GWS as he continued his recovery from a leg injury.
"It's a bit of an unknown injury with how it's going to progress," he said.
"It's just the soreness, so if not this week than hopefully next week."
Essendon youngster Matt Guelfi, who was cleared of rib damage, had passed a concussion test and Worsfold said he only needed to get through training, and be selected, to play.
Australian Associated Press
