Essendon coach James Hird is confident the club has the ability to cover for the loss of key duo Patirck Ryder and Dustin Fletcher against St. Kilda.

The Bombers have made five changes to their team that defeated Fremantle last Friday night ahead of Saturday’s match against St. Kilda.

Hird believes the club has enough depth to cover for the loss of key players such as Ryder (suspension) and Fletcher (groin).

“We would love to have Paddy and Dustin playing but unfortunately they can’t,” Hird said on Friday morning.

“That happens to every side in AFL football.”

“You’ve got to have depth, you have to have players that can come in and we are very confident.”

Defender Tayte Pears will play his first game of the season on Saturday afternoon after an injury interrupted two years.

“If Tayte gets back to some reasonable football at the AFL it is one of the great stories in football,” Hird said.

“He has had two and a half years of interrupted football, internal damage to his organs, stress fractures in his feet and ankle injuries.”

“For a guy to work as hard as he has to come back and play is really exciting for him and for our football club.”

“We have Jason Winderlich coming back into the team, one of our old captains in David Hille coming back into the team so there is no shortage of quality and experience coming back into our side which we are very happy about.”

Hird said Fletcher remained a chance to take his place in the side for ANZAC Day despite a troublesome groin.

“We will be careful with Dustin, he is 55 and the body doesn’t recover as quickly when you are that age so we will be careful with Dustin,” Hird joked

“He is a chance. At the moment we have him in our plans for ANZAC Day.”

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