John Worsfold says Craig Bird’s best football is ahead of him.

The premiership winning former Swan will play his 150^th AFL match this Saturday against Richmond.

After a disrupted pre season, Bird has become a regular feature in the Essendon midfield where he’s averaged a career high 20 possessions and six tackles per game.

The 27 year old spent his first eight seasons with the Swans after being drafted as a New South Wales scholarship holder.

“He’s been in some good teams where he’s played a role and been a strong contributor, including a premiership,” Worsfold said.

“Here this year he’s played a different type of role where he’s had to be one of the senior guys, the strong body out there for us, and he’s really held up well.

“He had a very limited pre season so getting through this year and having a better base for a pre season – I think he’s got better football ahead of him.”

Essendon enters the match against the Tigers coming off one of its best performances of the season.

The Bombers kicked their highest score of the year in the 11 point loss to the Saints.

It followed a strong first half against West Coast and a decent four quarter performance against GWS.

These three games, followed the loss to Hawthorn in round 12.

“The players have been very resilient,” Worsfold said.

“We were so disappointed with the Hawthorn game.

“Maybe it was coming off a big trip to Perth and a six day break but we still didn’t feel like we put enough effort into that game to challenge the Hawks once they got on top.

“We’ve been better since then coming down to our best performance for a long time against the Saints.

“But we still let ourselves down and let everyone done by coughing up an a chance to win the game.

“We created an opportunity but couldn’t finish it off so we want to keep working hard so if we get ourselves in that position again we’re hopeful we can hold on and win a game.”