Buoyed by the return of their "most important player" in David Hille, Essendon will chase a third-straight victory over St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.

The Bombers defeated the third-placed Saints by 12 points in round eight this year, at the same venue, and also upset them by two points late last season.

Hille returns to the team after missing six matches with hamstring problems and coach Matthew Knights said he could not overstate the towering ruck-forward's importance.

"He's a big in, David. We're really pleased to have him back in the team after missing eight weeks of football," Knights said.

"Unquestionably he's our most important player because he can play ruck and forward.

"We're expecting David to compete and play his role but after seven weeks we've also got to be realistic."

Knights said Hille's return would lift the load on Paddy Ryder, who had to shoulder virtually all of the ruck work in last week's win over North Melbourne.

"I think he's going to have to do his share of ruck work. We can't expect Patrick, like last week, to do 80 or 90 per cent of it, which Patrick did," said Knights.

"He did it manfully and did a sterling job against (Hamish) McIntosh and (Todd) Goldstein.

"That was one area the Kangaroos probably had a huge advantage but no-one realised that Paddy was doing it pretty much by himself.

"They're going to share the ruck work and obviously they'll play forward at different times during the game."

Knights said that while the Bombers would be clear underdogs on Friday night, they hoped to produce all the elements which contributed to their past two victories over the Saints.

"The last two games against the Saints have been titanic struggles - both games went right down to the wire, pretty much," Knights said.

"I think the form line of teams when they play each other is important.

"Our form post the bye for three weeks was really disappointing and shocking - the teams that played us in that period beat us and played good football but the times we've played against St Kilda we've actually been in decent form.

"We've had a pretty settled 22 and most of our players available.

"I think the times we've played the Saints in the last couple of years there's probably been a lot of elements in our favour that have given us an opportunity to win.

"And obviously the guys have stepped up on a big stage and played to their maximum."

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