MIDFIELD coach Ben Mathews says Melbourne won’t alter its game plan for an undermanned Essendon, when the two sides meet at Etihad Stadium next Friday night.

Speaking after Melbourne’s seven-point win against the Western Bulldogs at Eureka Stadium on Saturday, Mathews said the red and blue would simply focus on its own game – and not get caught up against the fact it will play an Essendon team with a host of top-up players due to its unusual situation.

“[We prepare for the match] as we normally would,” Mathews told Dee TV.

“We can’t control what they’re (Essendon) doing – we can control how we train this week and how we review this week and how we train from there.

“We’ve got to treat it as [if we’re] going into round one and the players need to go into the game really wanting to hone their game individually and as a team for round one.

“The processes stay the same and the boys need to treat [the opposition] as the Essendon of old – even though they haven’t got all of their players.”

Reflecting on his team’s second NAB Challenge outing, Mathews said Melbourne moved away from its processes and produced some poor stoppage work in the second half.

“Our intensity and attack on the footy in the first half was outstanding, but we just felt as a team that we’d lost that intensity in the second half and we didn’t stick to our processes – winning contested footy and joining in at the contest and being generally hard across the ground,” he said.

“The Doggies certainly lifted in that area and full credit to them – they gained confidence off the back of that and we were just second to the footy too much and we just trailed them all over the field.

“Once a team gets a bit of confidence, especially young teams like the Dogs, they really feed off that, so we can learn from that – no doubt.”

Mathews said three pre-season matches was the right amount of games leading into the premiership season.  

“I think so,” he said.

“As a player, if you can get two and a half games in – it might be 10 quarters and we think that’s pretty good preparation.

“Most of our players have had good minutes over the pre-season and we’d like to get a few more minutes into a couple of others, but we’ll just manage that and we’ve got to listen to their bodies and listen to the high performance team.

“So far, so good, and it’s about really honing in on our preparation against Essendon and getting ready for round one.”