'Have a go': Winless Bombers urged to take on Bulldogs

Essendon's previous worst run of 17 losses came in 2016, when most of their players had been suspended because of the club's drugs debacle.

Cruelled by a shocking run of injuries, the Bombers ended last season with 13 losses.

After opening this season with poor performances against Hawthorn and Port Adelaide, last weekend they narrowly went down to North Melbourne.

Now they come up against the free-scoring Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.

The Bulldogs have opened the season with three wins and Scott was asked this week if they should try to restrict the margin. He conceded it was a fair question, but the wrong attitude for his players to take.

"You have a go at the opposition. We're at the stage where we've got to go out with an attitude and a plan to get the job done," he said.

"That's what we did all of last year. Clearly we had challenges in that and we have challenges right now, but as soon as you sit on your heels and get on the back foot and try to mitigate a margin ... even if you do it, are you taking your team forward?

"We've talked about these investments that we've made and we're not going to back off. We've got to keep pushing and trying to improve and get better.

"Mitigating a margin just to make it easier for everyone to breathe a bit is not the way I approach it."

Adding to Essendon's challenges they have lost key forward Nate Caddy to concussion. 

They will expect big games from Zach Merrett, who was down against North, and Darcy Parrish as he tries to regain his best form after a bad run of injury.

Defence has been a massive problem for the Bombers and they come up against star key forward Sam Darcy, who only managed one goal in their win over Adelaide.

"Obviously Sam because of his presence and what he can do, teams are putting everything they can to physically interrupt his game. I'm sure Essendon will be no different," Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said.