ESSENDON will resist blooding top-10 draft pick Aaron Francis against Hawthorn on Friday night, with the defender likely to need another three weeks at VFL level before winning a senior spot.

Bombers coach John Worsfold said the exciting defender, who took nine intercept marks in his second VFL game two weeks ago, is not in contention to make his AFL debut as the Bombers take on the triple-reigning premiers at Etihad Stadium.

Last year's No.6 pick at the NAB AFL Draft has had an interrupted start to his career at Essendon, having strained his calf early in the year after being managed through the pre-season.

He recently returned to the field and his first two VFL games were impressive, and he took his nine intercept marks two weeks ago against Richmond's state league side.



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However, the Bombers' VFL bye last week and Essendon's plan to be cautious with the powerful South Australian will see him need a handful more VFL appearances before winning a senior call-up.

"[He's] not ready for AFL yet. I think that would be the wrong thing for him and not the best thing for the team at the moment," Worsfold said on Tuesday.

"We'll measure him week on week and see how he's tracking and how he pulls up.

"It still does depend on his form and he's going to have to work and play really good footy to get his spot in the team.

"Right at this stage I'd say he needs to play a couple of really good games, so plug that into where he's at at the moment, [a debut] is at least three weeks away I would guess."

Worsfold said veteran top-up player Ryan Crowley would miss at least four weeks with "a pretty good tear" in his hamstring suffered in the Bombers' 79-point defeat to Fremantle last weekend.

He also forecast a rest for attacking half-back Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, who has played every game so far this season in his debut AFL year.

He said the club would attack the Hawks contest hoping for a far better performance than their effort against the Dockers, which saw them drop to the bottom of the ladder as their ninth successive loss.

"It's very tough. We all want to win, we all want to be part of a successful club, but that's what we're putting the foundations in place for," Worsfold said.

"There's no easy way. You've got to work hard to be successful and do the hard yards and put all the effort in. That's what this year is about for us – really knuckling down and doing a lot of hard work to be in the best position possible for the future."

In good news for the Bombers, second-year midfielder Jayden Laverde trained with the main group on Tuesday and will return to the VFL this weekend after an eight-week layoff with a shoulder injury.