Essendon had its first skills session for the week at Whitten Oval this afternoon. In windy conditions, the full squad participated in the session including injured forward Matthew Lloyd who ran laps for the majority of training with VFL captain Josh Mahoney. Essendon play West Coast Eagles in a practice match this Saturday at Optus Oval. Coach Kevin Sheedy expects a couple of players who missed last week's game to return, however a few big names will still be missing. ""We get a couple back this week so we will have a fairly good line-up. Steve Alessio is battling through at the moment - he is still a few weeks away. We want to give everyone an opportunity, particularly the new players to get out and play senior footy as quick as they can. We've probably got a month to get ourselves right.""

Paul Salmon left the training track early but there are no injury concerns. Salmon pulled up well after his comeback match last weekend and Sheedy was satisfied with his performance. ""I was happy with Salmon's game - that was a bonus for us. He played better than I thought he would. It's pretty handy to pick up an experienced ruckman. I know that Ken Judge criticised the selection of Salmon in the West Australian newspaper on the weekend, but he must have written the article before he saw the game.""

With Salmon playing well, Alessio shortly back from injury and the promising David Hille improving all the time - Essendon's ruck stocks look solid. ""We would have loved David Hille to play last week but unfortunately he missed a game we didn't want him to miss. Paul Salmon will not get in the road of Hille's development and nor should David Hille get selected if he isn't playing as well as Paul. If Salmon is playing well he deserves the opportunity to play in the seniors,"" Sheedy said.