If Essendon are to upset Carlton and celebrate their 150-year anniversary in style, Peter Wright knows it almost certainly requires a big performance from him against a weakened Blues defence.
Carlton are without brilliant defensive general Jacob Weitering and fellow key backs Mitch McGovern and Oscar McDonald, while Caleb Marchbank is playing his first AFL game in more than 1000 days.
Wright, who has 25 goals in 11 games, has been one of the struggling Bombers' standout players this season and is keen to step up at the MCG on Friday night.
"They're going to be inexperienced, I guess. Losing Jacob, he's one of the best defenders in the competition, he's one of the best players I've played on," Wright told AAP.
"He's very strong, very diligent in the way he defends. So it'll be interesting to see how they deal with that.
"But for us, we'll be looking to play a really strong system-based game.
"It could be different people at different times getting off the chain and being able to impact the game and we'll look to manipulate the best match-ups we can.
"The key for me is just to try to be able to play big and really hit the contests and really have a strong impact in my aerial contests.
"Whether that's marking it or not, it's about jumping at the ball really hard and being a presence for my teammates."
The Bombers (2-9) have drawn on their decorated history and long-standing fierce rivalry with the Blues in the build-up to Friday night's match.
That's included visits from club greats Ken Fraser and Terry Daniher.
"(Fraser) talked quite strongly about the Carlton-Essendon rivalry and we really enjoyed listening to some of his stories and immersing ourselves in a little bit of the history of it," Wright said.
"They had some really strong contests back in the day. He just said that it always felt like it was more than any other game, it was close to a real finals atmosphere.
"So we're looking forward to being a part of that. We're expecting it to be a really physical, tight contest.
"I feel like the last few weeks we've been able to build a bit of momentum in terms of getting our identity back.
"If we continue to build on that I think we can put in a really good performance and come away with the win."
