Essendon coach James Hird is set to make at least four changes for Saturday's crunch clash with North Melbourne in a bid to revitalise his side's waning AFL season.

The Bombers started the year in scintillating fashion, but had lost their past three matches to slump to eighth on the table.

Their initial plans for this week were scuppered on Sunday night, when their flight from Perth to Melbourne was cancelled due to volcanic ash from the Chilean volcano, forcing the squad to spend an extra night in Western Australia.

They eventually secured a flight out of Perth at 5.05pm (WST) on Monday.

Hird was disappointed with his side's work ethic in their 34-point loss to Fremantle on Sunday, and said ruckman Tom Bellchambers, Heath Hocking, Brent Stanton and Sam Lonergan were near certainties to return against the Kangaroos.

"There's four guys that haven't played this weekend, and I think it's important with the shorter week and the break that we bring some fresh players in as well," Hird said on Monday in Perth.

"It hasn't been good (the past month).

"We'd hope to see a fair bit of improvement on Saturday against North Melbourne."

Hird believed the unusual preparation this week could spark his team back into form.

"We would have loved to have gone home last night, but it hasn't been the worst thing for us," Hird said.

"We got to spend some time together as a group, done a good recovery session and we'll go home in a couple of hours. So it's turned out OK.

"We probably needed to do something a little bit different after three losses in a row.

"It was forced upon us and it's been quite a good result for us.

"We had recovery this morning and then we talked about the game for 45 minutes and then they were able to have free time.

"We love Perth. It's a great city."

Defender Dustin Fletcher, who was subbed off at halftime against the Dockers due to a corked quad, was expected to be ready to go against North Melbourne.

"It looks to be fine. He was out jogging this morning. It's bled a little bit, but we're very confident he'll play," he said.

Hird said it wasn't time to panic despite recent losses to Richmond, Melbourne and Fremantle.

"I think we've spoken to our fans a lot this year about the improvement we need to become a good side," Hird said.

"That doesn't happen in three months, four months.

"The period we're going through at the moment will be a really good learning curve for our players.

"We'd love to have won the last three games but we haven't, and I think our players have learnt a fair bit about the hardships of AFL football."

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