“I would rather have them in the side than out of the side. They are fairly good players - one is captain, one is vice captain and the other is a best and fairest winner. It is damaging when you lose players like Hird, Lloyd and Fletcher because you are asking so much of the middle group of your players,” the four time premiership coach said.
Sheedy also confirmed that Mark Mercuri is likely to line-up for the Round 10 match. Mercuri was taken from the ground on a stretcher midway through last Friday night’s match against Port after receiving a knock from Peter Burgoyne. The Essendon medical staff monitored him over the days following and he has recovered quite well. “We a very confident Mercuri will play - thank goodness. It was a clear hit and he hasn't really suffered much this week,” Sheedy said. Mercuri trained on Monday night at the Ringwood training session and was again out on the track this afternoon, which was a positive sign.
Draftee Jobe Watson has played the past two weeks for the Bendigo Bombers after returning from a thigh injury. He left the track early this afternoon and Sheedy ruled him out of selection this week. “No he isn’t injured, he is just a bit sore from the game on the weekend. So that is a bit unfortunate for him,” the former Richmond player said.
Essendon is likely to only make the three changes with Hird, Lloyd and Fletcher set to return.“Probably - three for three. They are good experienced players and the players we have probably lacked over the past three weeks. We are lucky to be even considering Fletcher because of the way he went down - I thought he nearly be out for the whole year thinking it would be a knee reconstruction but it wasn't.”
The Essendon coaching panel has continued to use its policy this season of rotating young players through the seniors. “We have found some really good efforts and they may not have been picked if Hird and Lloyd were in the side. Ted Richards and Marc Bullen have put their hand up which is excellent. We really just need everyone to put their hand up and playing their best footy,” Sheedy said.
West Coast has a terrific young midfield with the likes of Ben Cousins, Daniel Kerr, Chris Judd and Michael Gardiner in the ruck. However, Sheedy is confident his team can match the second top side providing they get off to a good start. “West Coast has been playing really well. They are a very good young side coming up. Geelong really put it to them a couple of weeks ago over in Perth. It will be a really good game and we just have to make sure that they don't get to an early lead like they did against Collingwood when they kicked the first six.
“They are second at the moment and deservedly so. We have probably just been playing two and three quarters. We haven't played 120 minutes of footy since Collingwood, which was a while ago. Hawthorn was okay - with a reasonably undermanned side it was a good effort. Last week we let ourselves down in that last fifteen minutes, which was really annoying because we got to within 15-points of a team that is up there in the top four. That was a reasonably good effort up until then, but the last 15 minutes really annoyed me,” Sheedy said.
