With the start of the home and away season less than four weeks away, Essendon captain James Hird has urged Bomber fans to grab a membership for season 2002. Essendon has just under 30,000 members to this stage and is still hopeful of equalling the record figure of 36,493 set last season. ""We want to be the best club on and off the field. The players will try and do the job on the field and we need our supporters to do the job off the field,"" Hird said. Essendon members have watched an outstanding football side in the past three years and Hird says there is no reason to think the Bombers won't be highly competitive again.

""We didn't win a game in the pre-season competition last year and still made the Grand Final. We certainly aren't panicking about the results over the past couple of weeks,"" Hird said. ""In fact I think there have been a lot of positives - David Hille has taken the next step and watching Paul Salmon the other night, there is no doubt he still has plenty to offer. When Steve Alessio returns our ruck division will be quite strong,"" Hird said.

""Rob Forster-Knight is an improving defender while Marc Bullen, James Davies and Jordan Bannister have all contributed in the mid-field. Ted Richards was good against Fremantle and Aaron Henneman showed he is an option up forward. So when you look at the big picture I think we are in pretty good shape and I'm sure we have an exciting season ahead of us.""

Essendon was missing 10 premiership players when it went down to Fremantle last weekend. The Bombers were highly competitive for the first three quarters but fell away in the last to go under by 33 points. ""I thought the effort was good,"" Hird said. ""We were missing a lot players - Salmon came off after a half and Scott Lucas and Dean Rioli were injured. Fremantle are never easy to beat at home so I thought we did okay.""

Memberships can be purchased on-line or by phoning the club on 92300390.