St Kilda have dropped key forward Fraser Gehrig for Friday night's AFL match against Essendon at Telstra Dome.

The Bombers recalled their main goalkicker Matthew Lloyd, who missed last week's loss to the Western Bulldogs with a calf muscle injury.

Gehrig came out of a brief retirement to play for the Saints again this season, but the three-pronged attack with Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke has not worked consistently.

The Saints also dropped Aaron Fiora, while naming former Geelong forward Charlie Gardiner and David Armitage.

Essendon made three changes as Andrew Welsh returns for his first game of the season and Angus Monfries was recalled.

Top midfielder Mark McVeigh and young forward Sam Lonergan are out with hamstring injuries, while Damien Peverill was dropped.

In other team news, Fremantle reacted to last Sunday's bad loss to Richmond with five changes, two of them forced.

Among the exclusions is out-of-sorts key forward Chris Tarrant, who will miss the game for family reasons.

Clayton Hinkley was named for his AFL debut and Michael Johnson, Matthew Carr, Shaun McManus and Marcus Drum were recalled.

Des Headland has a knee injury and Robert Warnock, Brett Peake and Paul Duffield were dropped.

Hawthorn regained three key players for Saturday night's Gabba match against Brisbane.

Tall defender Trent Croad is back from the wrist injury he suffered in round one, while Sam Mitchell also returns after being a late withdrawal on Sunday and Jordan Lewis resumes after suspension.

Thomas Murphy is out with a finger injury and the Hawks dropped Travis Tuck and Cameron Stokes.

Brisbane forward Ash McGrath is set to play senior football for the first time this season, having recovered from knee and ankle injuries, while ruckman Jamie Charman was also included.

They were named in place of Wayde Mills and Lachlan Henderson.

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