Dean Solomon hit the pool this afternoon and was the only notable exclusion from the skills session. After doing the warm-up and kicking drills, Mark Johnson, Jobe Watson and Aaron Henneman all headed into the gym for bike work, while the rest of the list participated in an intensive 90 minutes skills session. ""It has been a while since we have had any where near our best list to choose from. Not all of them are totally match fit yet but it was good to see Hird and players like Ramanauskas get through the game because they have missed so much football this year,"" Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy said.
Sheedy was pleased to get the four points against Geelong and believes the team still has a lot of improvement left in them. With the VFL team recording a five point win on the weekend and a number of players performing well he said changes to the side that beat the Cats are not out of the question. ""It was really good to get a win under our belt. Ted Richards is a player we will look to bring into the side because his form has been consistent. Who will go out I am not quite sure and whether we play two ruckman is another thing. We didn't play two last week so we will address that at selection this week.""
""Alessio played well for the Bendigo Bombers. Our reserves team has won its past two games, which has been good. Mercuri played quite well, probably about a six out of 10. A lot will depend on the make-up of St.Kilda as to whether or not he will come back into the side. They have had some good players that have played well in their VFL side. We have to work out what the best balance for us is,"" the four-time premiership coach said.
In his return match the coaching panel started Hird in the backline. The skipper performed well and finished with 25 disposals. ""Some of the selectors thought that that was a good way to get him through the game. I thought is was a good comment from Harvey and Shaw. I didn't have a problem with it because I wanted to play Watson and give him a game under his belt. In the end Mercuri needed to go back to the reserves and play well and play a whole game, the same with Alessio. You quite often play the second ruckman off the bench and they often miss a lot of game time. With playing Hird in defence, we just thought it was the best way to go,"" Sheedy said.
Last week before his return match Hird called a team meeting and took the players aside for a chat about a few different issues. Sheedy said he thought the meeting was a great idea and exactly the sort of thing a captain should be doing for the betterment of the team. ""It was a standard joke that we wanted him to reacquaint himself with the players because he has hardly played a match! He has sat on the sidelines for six weeks and had a good look and formed an opinion and wanted to talk to them about two or three matters and make sure we get things right. He probably thought if we get those things right we can achieve these goals and play better,"" Sheedy said.
The media hype surrounding Jobe Watson's first game was one of the biggest build-ups any player has had to encounter before their senior debut. Sheedy said he is pleased Watson has his first game behind him and can focus on developing a senior career. ""He (Watson) has got Hollywood out of the way, so now he can concentrate on playing footy again. He doesn't have to go through that again. He is an excellent young player and an excellent young person, so we are glad that we have got him under the father and son rule.""
The Essendon players will have tomorrow off and return to the club on Wednesday for an intensive training day.
