Paul Salmon played the entire 120 minutes of the match against Collingwood for the first time this season. The 37-year-old notched up 37-hit-outs and out-classed the Collingwood ruck trio of Josh Fraser, Anthony Rocca and Steven McKee. Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy dispelled the suggestion that he will rest Salmon this week after his full game hit-out on the weekend. ""I think he (Salmon) needs to play. That was the message on the weekend. He needs to harden up - he has had a period of time where he has had to get used to coming back in the AFL, now it is time to stand up,"" Sheedy said.

Q. Salmon commented on the weekend, that he will probably retire at the end of the year. Have you had any discussions with him?
A. I haven't spoken to him, but the general feeling is that he will probably retire. I think that is fair enough because we only asked him to come back for one year. He is 37, so we have been fortunate to get the year out of him that we have. With Alessio being out for a fair period of the games and to leave it all up to David Hille, would have been too drastic. I think young Simon O'Keefe, just needs a year in the reserves. Probably our second or third ruck choice - Aaron Henneman, has been out with injury as well.

Q. Is Aaron Henneman a chance to come back?
A. I think Henneman will be in the seconds this week and I think he is as important as anyone else you are asking about. At the start of the year, I think he might have been the first ruckman in the first match.

Q. If Salmon leave, will you be looking at getting another experienced player to boost your ruck division?
A. I would like to pursue Henneman and I am not desperate to have a ruckman, from the point of view of having to turn the club upside down to go and get a ruckman. We think that Henneman can be very good and we still think that Bolton could be a very good player in the ruck. They are both 6ft 4 and I know it is not the 6ft 8 ruckman, but they could both hurt you on mobility.

Q. Would you be interested in drafting West Coast ruckman Michael Gardiner?
A. If he was available. It doesn't look like Salmon will play on next year, so we would be looking at any ruckman that comes up for negotiations. We don't look like we will get a Wayne Carey, so we will definitely look at another tall man.

Q. Where do you think Wayne Carey will go?
A. I am not sure if they are home yet the Maggies, but I definitely think the Magpies and Sydney would be up there amongst it.

Q. Have you made contact with Gardiner?
We haven't made any contact with Gardiner yet - not while the season is still on. We need help for our rucks here at Essendon - there is no doubt about that. Young David Hille and Simon O'Keefe are not there yet but we have to keep playing them and giving them opportunities.