Essendon coach Brad Scott believes character is revealed through adversity.
And he suspects he'll be given a good look at his players' true selves in Saturday night's clash with fellow strugglers North Melbourne.
Another demoralising loss for the under-siege Bombers could be catastrophic.
"I'm very optimistic we'll look very different to what we produced in the first two weeks," Scott said.
Essendon have opened their season with consecutive heavy losses, taking their winless streak to 15 games.
Thrashings from Hawthorn (62 points) and Port Adelaide (63) have put the Bombers under a fierce blowtorch.
"Our players now know how hard this game is and they're building character and resilience because of it," Scott said.
"It's not fun, but we knew there was a risk in the short-term. We understood that.
"But the last two weeks haven't been anywhere near our capability, let alone our potential."
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson, who saw his side give up a five-goal lead in last week's loss to West Coast, is expecting to face the "Essendon of old" at Marvel Stadium.
"Anyone who has got their backs to the wall are usually (fired up). We're expecting Essendon's best," Clarkson said.
"Even in passages of play over the last two rounds, they've played against two pretty good opponents in Hawthorn jumping on the rebound and so were Port Adelaide.
"They still played some good patches of footy and we can see through the course of those games that the Essendon best will trouble anyone."
The Bombers have lost Mason Redman (knee) and swung the axe, dropping inexperienced trio Jayden Nguyen, Huss El-Achkar and Max Kondogiannis.
Jade Gresham is back alongside fellow inclusions Archer Day-Wicks, Saad El-Hawli and debutant Jacob Farrow.
North Melbourne welcome back George Wardlaw for his first game of the season after hamstring issues.
Callum Coleman-Jones and Aidan Corr also return, with Jack Darling and Jacob Konstanty dropped. Griffin Logue (hamstring) is unavailable.
"He's had a really good training block," Clarkson said of Wardlaw.
"Hopefully he provides a spark for us, but he'll be on limited game time.
"The fifth interchange just gives you a bit more affordability to manage the time load of some of your players."
