Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy says the club must think long and hard about its approach to the upcoming trade period and National draft. Much discussion post-Saturday night has centred on the Bombers’ need for ""class"" midfielders. But Sheedy has warned against making any knee jerk decisions that could have a detrimental impact in the long-term.

Sheedy agrees the Bombers need to beef up their midfield stocks in the lead up to season 2005. It was an area where Essendon was soundly beaten last Saturday night. James Bartel (33 possessions), Cameron Ling (25), Darren Milburn (24), Joel Corey (23) and Gary Ablett (22) simply won too much of the ball and used it much more efficiently than their Essendon counterparts.

""There is a few ways we can go now (to beef up the midfield),"" Sheedy said. ""We could bring Mark McVeigh into the midfield permanently, go and find a backline player and not get hoodwinked into spending everything on a midfielder because you become desperate. I don’t think that is a bad way to go because McVeigh has shown something late in the year.

""We need to find a good, strong, gutsy midfielder and there were a couple around last year that we missed out on – we went for a tall and three smalls at the draft. Even a guy like Jay Nash might give you another midfielder.

""Then we have Joel Reynolds who we have hardly seen. Adrian Wilson, who is on our rookie list, I don’t mind him as a player. He is a good strong player similar to some of those Geelong has - good strong over the ball players.

""While everyone is saying we need to find a class midfielder – myself included – we shouldn’t forget we might have one in the club already, we might even have three if they are given the opportunity.""

Brent Stanton and Ricky Dyson have spent time in the seniors this season and look capable of becoming permanent fixtures in the Essendon midfield. Mark McVeigh has been a revelation late in the season while Adam Ramanauskas showed the sort of football we have come to expect from him last weekend – he too could slot back into the midfield next season.

The Bombers will hope that Joel Reynolds and Jason Winderlich can complete injury free pre-seasons in the build up to 2005. They might just give the team the injection of pace needed to match it with the top four sides. Of course, it should not be forgotten that Dean Rioli and Adam McPhee were missing from last weekend’s side.