ESSENDON ruckman Patrick Ryder will tweak his physical approach to contests after serving a three-game suspension, but won't shelve the bump for good.

Ryder copped his ban after a high hit on Fremantle's Luke McPharlin in round three, which saw the backman subbed out of the game and miss a week with concussion.

Ryder, 25, said it would change the way he used the bump in the future.

"Going forward I'll certainly err on the side of caution when I go into contests," Ryder told AFL.com.au.

"I certainly don't want to be missing weeks [with suspension]. I'll probably still go for bumps, it's not going to stop me from doing that. But I'll certainly be a lot more careful about it."

Ryder's shoulder caught the bottom of McPharlin's chin in the bump, and the 135-gamer knew immediately he would be in some trouble with the Match Review Panel.

"As soon as it happened the top of my shoulder got sore straight away so I knew that might have connected him there a bit," Ryder said.

Ryder is set to return next week against Geelong, having already missed Essendon's strong wins over St Kilda and Collingwood.

He will also sit out Saturday's clash with Greater Western Sydney.

Tom Bellchambers and David Hille are again likely to share ruck duties against the Giants and Ryder said the club's strength in the big-man department was an obvious advantage.

"It's only going to help the club going forward. If you've got a dominant ruckman on the ground, it goes a long way to winning footy games and at the moment we've got three ruckmen at our club whose output in matches is [good for] the midfield," he said.

Watching from the stands has also given Ryder a wider perspective of the new-look Bombers and the fanatical defensive pressure central to their unbeaten start to the season.

"It's good to watch. You see things happening out on the field, blokes making team decisions, and making the right decisions as well," he said.

"They've been setting up the ground and valuing their defensive side of football and that's something that we lacked in previous years.

"That's the type of footy that stands up in finals and that's where we want to be at the end of the year."

Follow AFL website reporter Callum Twomey on Twitter at @AFL_CalTwomey