The Essendon players and coaches are well aware that their season is on the line this Saturday night – it doesn’t get much bigger than that! Only percentage separates the Bombers and Sydney on the AFL ladder as both sides fight for a position in the 2004 finals series. ""It’s a final, it’s a knockout final virtually, I don’t think the (premiership) points really come into it,"" Sheedy said.

The game is being played at the Olympic Stadium, not at the Swans traditional home ground the Sydney Cricket Ground. This may suit the Essendon game plan and give running players such as Adam McPhee and Brent Stanton plenty of room to move.

Sheedy is more concerned about the result though. ""It doesn’t matter where we play them, as far as I’m concerned it’s an interstate final in Round 21, that’s the way we’re looking at it,"" he said.

The Bomber mastermind said he had learnt from watching the Kangaroos win over Sydney a fortnight ago after they were 40-points down early in the last quarter.

""We feel that there is not a hell of a lot of difference between Sydney, Essendon and the Kangaroos. Hopefully we will take a leaf out of what the Kangaroos were able to achieve in overcoming Sydney in that last half in particular,"" he said.

Sheedy said that measuring the form of sides at the bottom of the eight was difficult. ""It’s just been one of those seasons really, there’s been inconsistency just when you think a team is about to play really solid footy,"" Sheedy said.

""From our point of view we have beaten Port Adelaide and Collingwood in the past three weeks and we had a game when we didn’t play well against Carlton.""

Sheedy said that Matthew Lloyd would be fitter than he was last week, indicating he will be at least ""90 to 95 percent for"" for the clash with the Swans. ""Most players play with some sort in injury and he played a disciplined role last week that allowed Jobe Watson to be a good player for us,"" Sheedy said.