Essendon coach Brad Scott has mounted a fierce defence of recruit Sam Weideman as the key forward struggles for form.
Former Demon Weideman has gone goalless in his last four AFL games and is without a contested mark in three, after booting 13 goals in his first eight appearances as a Bomber.
He had just eight touches in Essendon's loss to Fremantle on Saturday.
The 26-year-old struggled for consistency at Melbourne, never playing more than 13 games in a season there.
But he clearly has Scott's backing.
"He's just trying to work in. He's at a new club, trying to fit in with a player he hasn't played with before in Peter Wright," Scott told reporters on Wednesday.
"We always look at our forward structure in terms of the total output, and our forwards didn't give us great output on the weekend. But they didn't get great service, or a lot of service, either.
"It's extremely unfair to talk about one player when it's the total mix we're looking for.
"... We wouldn't be sitting here 8-6 without Sam Weideman, who kicked five against Geelong, kicked two the next week against Port in Adelaide and now he's trying to adjust to a slightly different structure for us.
"We've got a lot of faith and confidence in Sam."
Gun ruckman Sam Draper is no chance to return from his lingering hip injury when Essendon host Port Adelaide on Saturday and looks set for several weeks on the sidelines.
Scott said the Bombers were "unloading" the dynamic Draper, with his return to play to become clearer once his training loads were ramped up again.
"We just made the decision that we want to get him absolutely 100 per cent before we play him again," he said.
"When you've got a player who's dynamic and powerful and he's struggling through a season, it's not going to help us to just continue to go down that road.
"So it's that unloading phase, get some treatment in and then reload him.
"Hopefully that's a few weeks ... but it's really hard to be definitive as to when he's going to be back."
Fremantle big men Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson starred in Draper's absence against Andrew Phillips and Nick Bryan.
Scott planned to stick with two ruckmen against the Power at the MCG.
"I wouldn't have said our rucks were beaten," Scott said.
"We were a bit disappointed with our midfield group and I know they'll respond this week.
"But the two rucks has been the preferred structure for us all year, and even without Draper we've got options."
