Essendon players and coaching staff arrived in Sydney early this afternoon for tonight's clash with the Swans and were greeted by gloomy conditions. Early showers are predicted to become more frequent as tonight's match approaches, conditions which would further tighten a contest which already promises to be very close. Tonight's match at the SCG is a sell out and the Bombers are expected to get significant support from the crowd. At his pre-match press conference Kevin Sheedy was asked about both the weather and the crowd.

""If it rains the contest will be evened up to a certain extent but I still believe that Sydney will go into this match as favorites,"" Sheedy told the media gathering. ""We are missing a couple of important players but have included a couple of mudlarks so they will enjoy it if the rain comes.""

Sheedy said he didn't expect his side to attract the same animosity the Kangaroos did last weekend when the Swans launched the ""Boo A Roo"" campaign. ""We have a lot of support up here and that is something the club has been very keen to establish. Our alignment with North Shore has had a lot to do with that push,"" Sheedy said.

""We have a lot of New South Wales in our club,"" Sheedy said. ""Terry Daniher, John Quinn, Mark McVeigh and Dean Solomon. Then we have the boys from the Murray River - Rob Forster-Knight and John Barnes and Justin Blumfield and James Hird are closer to Sydney than Melbourne. I suppose that is another reason that we have an excellent supporter base up this way.""