Q. What are you expecting from Mercuri this season?
A. I expect a huge year from Mark Mercuri and he is training that well. You would want to put a good player on him this year. He has been one of our best trainers and best performers out on the track.
Q. Does he need to have a good season for his own reputation?
A. I think he needs it for his own confidence. His reputation is always fairly good because he has always been a damn good player. He missed games last year in fairness to him. I think it is a good opportunity to Mark to really let the football world know how great a player he can be. He was runner-up in the Brownlow a couple of years back.
Q. Did you consider trading him last year?A. Well of course we did, but no one wanted him. So what does Mark think about that and Joe Misiti. We have Joe Misiti and Mark Mercuri and no one wanted them - so it is letting our two players know what the AFL clubs really think of them.
Q. Has that been a driving force behind Mercuri's pre-season?
A. Maybe so - because when you know the other 15 clubs don't want you and you are a very, very good player - that goes for Misiti also - then really it is giving us all a message, the players both included.
Q. Joe could have gone to Collingwood though.
A. But he didn't did he. They wouldn't give up a first round draft choice for him - so that is Collingwood's fault. That was the decision - if they had of given up a first round draft choice they would have got Joe Misiti - but they didn't. I am quite happy with that - they have left us with a good player and the only player we lost was Damien Hardwick. He was probably older than Misiti and Mercuri. We kept our list younger and our list a little bit hurt and sometimes you need that.
Q. Who will play in the ruck?
A. We could use Henneman, we could use O'Keefe, who was our ruck choice last year in the draft. Everytime we put those two ruckman out on the ground we know this team is going to get better. We could possibly go that way if we had to - they are two six-foot plus boys who will perform quite well - better than what people would think.
Q. Is Hille fit - I suppose he would be in the mix as well?
A. Hille is always in the mix - regardless if Alessio and Salmon are fit.Q. What about Marcus Kenny?
A. He is a fairly good player - he played for Victoria in the U/18s. We probably would like to see which one of our rookie players performs very well before we make that decision. Ken Hall, Scott Howard and Marcus Kenny are the three players we are considering at the moment. I just spoke to the players and asked what players in the next three to four weeks are going to put their hand up - like Damien Peverill had done in the past and Cory McGrath - we have always done fairly well out of the rookie list.
Q. Further from Dean Solomon's unfortunate injury - has there been a bit of re-thinking or re-planning?
A. From the point of view of losing a pretty good player - we have to adjust. We have done that in years past and had quite successful years. I know everyone is perhaps going to drop off Essendon another marginal 5-10% and I understand that because he is a very good player - a very tough and hard player. But it really means that the Essendon Football Club - the players and the coaches need to lift another extra percent to get up there again. Solomon has been a very good player for us - he came 13th in our best and fairest so he is not in our best five or eight, but he is a very, very strong player.
Q.Who goes back there now - given you have lost Hardwick as well?
A. We can play Bolton, we could play Heffernan, Blumfield - we get Rioli back he could drop back there. Dean just needs a couple of weeks off to get over his problems and hopefully he will get that right. It won't even worry us if it is Mercuri or any of those players. A fortnight ago we kicked 22-goals without Lucas, Lloyd, Caracella and Moorcroft in the forward line and they are pretty good players.
Q.So Rioli will miss the first two games?
A. Probably the first one to two games.
Q. Are you confident Dean can work things out in the next couple of weeks?
A. We would hope so - I am probably a person that gives our players a bit more of an opportunity and chance when it comes to personal issues. He has had a bit of a bust up with his wife - so from that point of view we just leave that alone.
Q. Does the club stay in regular contact with him?
A. Of course.
Q. What about Danny Jacobs - there is a fair bit on him with Dean Solomon going down.
A. We need Henneman, Bolton and Jacobs to really lift.
Q. Is Shane Harvey a chance to play this weekend?
A. I doubt it at the moment. Gary Moorcroft really played well against Collingwood last weekend - he might just edge ahead again because he really put a lot into putting his hand up for selection.
Q. Did Lloyd pull up alright?
A. Lloyd played quite well. We just thought we'd take Lloyd off because we had already lost one for the match - we didn't need to lose another senior player in a practice match, two weeks out from the season.
Q. Will Lloyd be slightly underdone?
A. I doubt it - how much can a full forward be underdone? Some of the greatest full-forwards have been chubby little full-forwards that have never run out of sight on a dark night.
Q. David Johnson a chance to make a debut for the Geelong this weekend.
A. Well it is a good effort - we are in a situation where we either kept him on the list or we didn't and hopefully Robert Forster-Knight who plays the same position will play quite well. I just don't believe in keeping a player if they are going to play another year or two in the seconds - you are doing the wrong thing by the player. We have done it with Glenn Manton and we've done it with Scott Cummings. It is best to let the player go and get a career somewhere else and that is fantastic. If David Johnson can play 100 games of league footy with someone else and get a house out of footy then the Essendon Football Club will be very happy.
Q.There is a chance Gary Ablett junior could also line up for Geelong.
A. Well we might put Dick Reynolds grandson on him.
