Sheedy said there were a number of reasons he hoped a big Essendon contingent would fill the stands this Saturday night. First and foremost he said Essendon had a real connection with football in South Australia, going so far as to hand out team of players with Essendon / South Australian connection.
That team, including support staff, was:
Backs: David Grenvold Jonathon Robran Andrew Rogers
Half Backs: Bob Shearman Ron Andrews Sean Wellman
Centres: Kieran Sporn Greg Anderson Brenton Phillips
Half Forwards: Phil Carman Paul Weston Michael Werner
Forwards: Steve Copping Geoff Blethyn Charlie Payne
Rucks: Jim Forsythe Andrew Underwood Tony Antrobus
Bench: Ryan O’Connor Derek Kickett, Peter Berbakov David Robertson
Emergencies: Michael Aish Craig Bradley (both signed but yet to arrive) Andrew Payze (Essendon’s first ever draft selection)
Coaching Staff: Dick Reynolds John Birt Kevin Morris David Flood
Media Liaison Officer: Robert Shaw
Chief Executive Officer: Peter Jackson
“We have had a lot of players from South Australia that we have been very proud to have played at this club,” Sheedy said. “There is about 10,500 tickets sold, if we can fit another 15,000 Essendon fans in the stadium then we will go for it. This may or may not be the last time our fans see us play this season.”
“West Adelaide are red and black and I don’t think they would love Port Adelaide given the thumpings they copped over the years. Our last win was in front of 40,000 purple people – this week we are within driving distance of many supporters and I would just love to see a convoy head over there.”
Sheedy then went on to list the names of players and staff currently at Port Adelaide – he labelled it “the assistance Essendon has given Port Adelaide. Those names were Gavin Wanganeen, Damien Hardwick, Che Cockatoo-Collins, Adam Kingsley, Mark Williams, Dean Bailey and Andrew Russell (fitness coach).
But the Bombers’ coach still hadn’t finished. He then looked at the dominance Port Adelaide has had in the local SANFL competition, suggesting supporters of those sides would jump on Essendon. Port Adelaide has won 23 Premierships since the war. They have upset eight clubs in that time - North Adelaide, South Adelaide, West Adelaide, Norwood, Sturt, Glenelg, Eagles and Centrals.
So Bomber fans, take up the challenge and get to AAMI Stadium!
IN other news Sheedy said he was obviously disappointed with the outcome of Dustin Fletcher's tribunal hearing. ""He shouldn't be in front of the tribunal and I told him that in front of the players. All I am saying is that he should be worried about playing football, not fronting the tribunal. But we need to focus on the game not the fact we have one player in the hangar,"" he said.
""At the present time we have Dustin Fletcher and Adam Ramanauskas out and they have Matthew Primus and Josh Francou out - that's the way I look at it and we will just move on.""
Sheedy said he had still not decided who would go to Port Adelaide star Warren Tredrea this weekend, although Lucas appears the obvious move to most. ""(Lucas) might not play on him at all. We might go with (Mark) Bolton or Aaron Henneman. We could go with Dean Solomon - he has played well on Jonathon Brown before. We'll just have a look at what (Andrew) Schauble did on him last week and work out the best way to stop the All Australian centre half forward. He is a great player, let's face it,"" he said.
