Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy believes fresh legs and fresh minds could be a blessing for the Bombers as they head into the final two home and away games of season 2002. Essendon needs to win both games against Fremantle and Carlton to be assured of a finals' berth. Sheedy was referring to the fact that James Hird, Matthew Lloyd and Joe Misiti are all reaching peak fitness having spent extended periods on the sidelines. ""These players should have plenty of run in their legs at the right time of the year,"" he said.

Q: At this time of the year would you take any risks with the players?

No, not really. If the players aren't fit they wont be playing, we've got some young players we want to bring in and are pretty keen and if we had to, we would adjust the side.

Q: Well Justin has had his fitness test, are we just waiting to see how he comes up in the morning, are you confident?

Yeh pretty confident, I'll be disappointed if he doesn’t play. Ramanauskas will definitely play.

Q: Kev, you had a bad six weeks and now a blinder against Collingwood. Is that just good management or good luck?

Well to be quite honest, we played five top sides in that period and we just got back Misiti and Fletcher was out for a while and Hird and Lloyd have just started to play some match fitness under their belt.

Q: Good timing too isnt it?

Yeah its been very timely. I mean any other club that misses four or five that have only played 15 games. And I think Joe has only played 11 games or so that might bring those blokes up very very fresh. Which is in one way dissapointing because we havent got enough wins on the board but the other way is we have got five blokes that their bodies havent been totally belted. Lloydy missed 6 with a hand injury and Hirdy too so they have still got plenty of run in their legs which is good.

Q: How much momentum does a win like that against a top four side give you?

Well it was a really good win that we needed from a point of view of getting back into the eight. Fremantle have played pretty good footy and even though they didn’t win against Richmond the other week they had the ball inside 50m 56 times. And it was a very windy day against Richmond at the MCG.

Q: Is this game a chance to consolidate what you did last week?

It is, there is no doubt about that and it was getting back to somewhere near our best football and the players really should be able to play well. We have had plenty of time now to get ourselves right and they have got their five or six matches under their belt and the game against Richmond was a pretty solid effort.

Q: How many weeks like last week does it take to get back to full confidence?

Two or three so they can mentally know that they have a good chance of winning and its time now to shape up.

Q: And Essendon could replace Collingwood as the great Victorian hope.

It's all a matter of what happens in September. I mean you got to get there and anything can happen in a month time.I mean look at the game last week Adelaide and Port lose Wakelin for a week another guy goes for five weeks you just don’t know what is going to happen next month in this game.

Q:Do you think heading into September it would be pretty embarrassing to be the first team to lose to Fremantle over here?

Oh, that will be a factor with the players don’t you worry about that. They’ve got nothing to lose they havent won over here. On their website their were some comments made to that effect.

Q; Whose comments?

One of their players. A timely reminder to our players.

Q: Is it good to know that its in your own hands after the win over Collingwood?

It’s a two week season, the past is gone, whatever happened in your life is gone, two week season weve got over those 16 night games we had a farely descent hike, players get back here a 12 for a swim and don’t get to bed until late, it took it out of the boys, the last wizard cup game was a night game and 15 other night games and two day games to get our minds right.