Tayte Pears Biography

Young defender Tayte Pears may have the difficult job of standing Blues spearhead Brendan Fevola on Friday night.

"We'll back our young defence. We have all year, and there's no reason for me to go away from that," Essendon coach Matthew Knights said.

"Fevola is a handful and we haven't managed to stop him as a team for two or three years now. He's got sevens, eights and nines, which are really big bags in the modern age.

"We're going to have to try and cut that down a little bit."

Young Essendon defender Tayte Pears will get first crack at Blues' full forward Brendan Fevola on Friday night.

Essendon assistant coach Alan Richardson said the Bombers would resist the temptation to start with the more experienced Dustin Fletcher on the dangerous forward.

"Fletcher will certainly get his opportunity to play on Fev. Tayte Pears will be the one early. He will get first crack and he has been in terrific form so he will get first go," Richardson said.

"The way Fletcher plays, it will be more a team defence than perhaps a one-on-one defence. We hope we can get that structure right."

Second-year Essendon defender Tayte Pears will be given the daunting task of nullifying Carlton full-forward Brendan Fevola at the MCG tonight.

Bombers defender Tayte Pears has been rewarded for his shutdown job on Brendan Fevola with a NAB AFL Rising Star nomination.

"I was very nervous. I grew up watching 'Fev' play footy for years. I used to love watching him, and to get the chance to play on him was pretty big. I was definitely nervous going in to the game," Pears said.

Tayte Pears is working hard in the weights room this pre-season in an effort to counter some of the competition's stronger forwards that he struggled against in 2009.

"Being only my second year, my opponents had six, seven, even more years in the gym on me and at times I really felt skinny and scrawny.

"I found ways to work around that, but this year I definitely needed to get a bit bigger and hopefully that should help."

Essendon key defender Tayte Pears is set to miss the next couple of months after breaking his arm during the Bombers' Anzac Day clash against Collingwood.

"It's really disappointing for Tayte and the team - it is one of those disappointing collision injuries that can happen," Bombers' football manager Paul Hamilton said.

"He has had a really good start to the year but unfortunately we are going to have to do without him for 6-8 weeks and we will be looking for others to step up and fill his spot."

Essendon defender Tayte Pears will be sidelined for eight weeks after undergoing pancreas surgery.

"This is a serious injury and he has had a fairly major operation," Essendon general manager of football operations Paul Hamilton said.

"The operation went well and it was great news that there was no tear. The doctors are confident he will make a full recovery."