""The players that have come into the side are there on form apart from Hird who is coming back from injury. Joel Reynolds played very for the Bendigo Bombers last week and so did Jobe Watson - Ted Richards also did well and he is unlucky not to be in the side,"" Sheedy said.
Two-time Premiership player and vice-captain Mark Mercuri was one of the players asked to make way for the young duo. Sheedy said the omission of Mercuri had been a tough call.
""It is unfortunate that his form has dropped off a little. To be quite honest he has been a little bit inconsistent. He knows that and he took being dropped on the chin and he will be trying his hardest for us against Geelong in the VFL,"" Sheedy said.
""I think he is still a very good player for us but we need to play some of these younger players. We have played a number of younger players throughout the year but by the same token I am not going to pick a player because of his birth date.
""It is a very important game for us. If we can win this we can keep alive our hopes of making the final eight. It means that we have the chance to go somewhere in the next 10 weeks.""
While much of the focus this week has been on the debut of Watson, Sheedy took time to heap praise on the son of another football legend - Gary Ablett junior. ""I wouldn't be surprised if Gary Ablett along with Chris Judd and maybe one other is among the best young players in the game - he is definitely in the first half a dozen. We played against Geelong in a practice match at Lavington earlier this year and he just did four or five things that were every bit as good as anything Billy Goggin produced and he was a great champion for Geelong,"" Sheedy said.
""Tim would be feeling a bit nervous - that is naturally the way fathers would feel about their son running out for the first time. The kid has been well tutored and he has played in the Victorian under 18 team and he comes out of Xavier College. He'll get his hands on the ball a dozen times or more - I'm pretty confident of that.""
