ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights is stumped by David Hille's omission from the 40-strong All Australian nomination list, while Collingwood president Eddie McGuire yesterday questioned the selection criteria and added Leon Davis, Travis Cloke and Dane Swan to the list of notable absentees.

Knights said ruckman Hille, in line to win Essendon's best and fairest after his breakthrough season, should have "at least" made the shortlist to be trimmed before the coveted team is announced later this month. Members of Essendon's hierarchy are also surprised by what they believe to be a selection oversight.

Essendon and Melbourne are the only clubs without players in the 40, which will be culled to six forwards, six defenders, six midfielders and a four-man bench.

"I think David has clearly had an amazing impact on the Essendon footy club this year. When we had a period of the season when we were good and we were playing consistently he was right at the forefront, so as a coach I'm a touch disappointed that he has missed out because I think he thoroughly deserves to be in that 40," Knights said yesterday.

The Bombers' coach said that Hille's season was as good as the ruckmen that had been nominated — Fremantle's Aaron Sandilands and West Coast's Dean Cox.

"It was a first year David had a breakout year, maybe he has to do it for a longer period of time and then get his just reward. That may have come into consideration but it's a yearly selection, it's a season selection, so it shouldn't come into it, but maybe that came under consideration," Knights said.

"Head to head he had a really good game against Dean Cox early in the year at the Telstra Dome and clearly outpointed Dean, and then in the second game Dean clearly outpointed David in Western Australia at Subiaco, so I guess they shared honours head to head.

"Against Sandilands, well there's not too many people that beat Aaron in the hitouts, but David was quite capable around the ground that day we played, so head to head I think he's played well."

McGuire would not bite on the controversial omission of Magpies' forward Davis yesterday, but added the names of Cloke — who he described as "a one-man forward line" — and Swan to the missing.

"As far as we're concerned, we have the Copeland Trophy and we don't care about anything else," McGuire said. "We don't want to be churlish. Good luck to the 22. They're all deserving."

McGuire said the criteria for the All-Australian team selection changed "every five minutes", and wondered if the panel should consist of retired players with no media involvement, such as Bob Skilton or James Clement.

The selection panel is chaired by AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and includes AFL general manager of football operations Adrian Anderson, former players Rod Austin, Kevin Bartlett, Robert Walls, Mark Bickley, Gerard Healy and Glen Jakovich, most of whom are media commentators.

Healy last night conceded that Geelong's Cameron Ling was unlucky to have missed selection.