A heavy upcoming travel schedule has Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade glad to avoid a trip to Darwin for the club's opening AFL pre-season match.

With the `Dogs facing two trips to Perth in the opening four rounds of the home and away season, Eade welcomed the switch of Friday night's NAB Cup game against Essendon to Telstra Dome as a bushfire relief fundraiser.

"There's no doubt about that, such a long flight (to Darwin), over five hours there and five hours back," he said.

"... Obviously we've got two long flights early in the year, so I think from that point of view it's a plus.

"But having said that you'd rather not have had the bushfires, there's no doubt about that."

The switch of venues means the club will play skipper Brad Johnson and fellow veteran Nathan Eagleton, who would both have skipped the trip to Darwin.

But they will also field plenty of youth.

Eade said Easton Wood, Brennan Stack, Jarrad Grant, Paul O'Shea and Henry White, none of whom have played an AFL premiership season match, would all be in the side.

Four other rookie-listed players - Jamason Daniels, James Mulligan, Liam Picken, and John Shaw - were named in the 29-man squad, to be reduced to 26.

The coach hoped at least one of the youngsters would do enough to stake a claim on a regular season berth.

"The main thing is that you like to get some good game time into the players in preparation for round one," he said.

"It's still a long way to go, it's still six or seven weeks until the opening round, we'll just share the gametime around.

"... Players playing who have played less than 10 games can hopefully put their hand up for a chance for round one, we'd like them to perform well."

None of this year's draft crop were included, while also missing will be reigning Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney and fellow stars Jason Akermanis and Robert Murphy, as well as promising young defender Tom Williams, all on the comeback from injury.

Eade said Williams was likely to play in the second round of the pre-season, the other three probably a week later.

Essendon included skipper Matthew Lloyd, as well as their oldest player, defender Dustin Fletcher, and No.1 ruckman David Hille, who has overcome a recent stingray barb.

The Bombers also named young pair Scott Gumbleton and Courtenay Dempsey, who have both spent most of the past two seasons sidelined by injury.

Three new draftees - David Zaharakis, Tyson Slattery and former Adelaide player Hayden Skipworth - and rookie-listed players Christian Bock and Michael Quinn were also picked.

Zaharakis was included despite mourning the death of his girlfriend, Melanie Shuey.

The 17-year-old sister of West Coast recruit Luke Shuey died in Melbourne on Sunday morning after being hit by a motorbike while crossing a road.

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