They might be without star playmakers Jobe Watson and Brendan Goddard, but Guy McKenna is still expecting his coaching counterpart Mark Thompson to lead a rugged, and aggressive side into tonight's NAB Challenge match at Metricon Stadium.

"They're coming up with a reasonable side and one that will test us that's for sure," McKenna said.

High-profile recruit Paul Chapman, Dustin Fletcher and Courtney Dempsay are among the other notable absentees that did not board the Bombers flight out of Tullamarine Airport on Sunday afternoon.

But the Bombers certainly won't be lacking in experience, with Brent Stanton, David Zaharakis, Dyson Heppell, Heath Hocking, Michael Hurley and Patrick Ryder on board to get their first taste of AFL football for 2014, against a more-physically developed Gold Coast team that has benefited from yet another challenging pre-season. 

Physically, the boys have never been in such peak condition, and although McKenna believes his charges are still one pre-season away from completing a typical AFL pre-season workload, the Gold Coast coach is encouraged with the gains his playing list has made over the summer.

"Since Stephen Schwerdt has got here there has been a shift, and the boys are absorbing more and it's has clearly showed this pre-season.

"We think they are still half a lap off in the physical maturation in a typical pre-season, but we're not far off."

"As we told them on Sunday morning, they have done the load and should be comfortable where they are at."

While the club's modified match-simulation training has been at an all-time high, McKenna knows his boys have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to sink their teeth into a quality AFL opposition. 

And he isn't hanging his hat on the final result as such, rather focused on seeing his on-field marshals execute the fundamentals and structures his coaching staff have implemented over the pre-season. 

"It will be great to try and implement the game structures we have been developing over the preseason, and to get better with those things."

"We have seen over the past three or four days it's about doing the basics well and the important thing we know is it's going to be hot and the intensity is going to be on.

"It will be the first time get to lay skin on skin against an opponent against us and so hopefully everything will go up.

"From a coaching point of view and probably from a player's point of view it's about being able to push through that, so we want to make sure we do the basics well."