Q. Has yesterday's news sunk in as yet?
""I suppose some positives will come out of that and that is, he still has an opportunity to play if we can get to the finals, which is in the lap of the gods with all teams at the present time except maybe the Western Bulldogs -- they are firing on all cylinders -- and probably the West Coast. So we have got a job ahead of us.
""The last time our football club was like this was probably 1999 when we got into a finals series without Hird and Lucas and Jason Johnson. That was a pretty solid effort so I think we have all got to roll our sleeves up and get into the season harder than ever before.
""We will probably go and pick a captain now I would say. That was only with Lloyd being out for five or six weeks.""
Q: Will James Hird be considered?
""Obviously he will be. He has been a fine captain of our club. You don't want to see Jim get injured and all those sorts of things which can happen to your older players. You have just got to be aware of those sort of things and take it all into consideration. But if we go with Hird we go with Hird. If we don't, we go with Fletcher, Lucas or a Johnson.
""It will be a club decision with the coach. I always like to put in on the table with the club and listen to the senior players' views. When those sorts of things happen you have just got to re-adjust. We will do that.""
Q: Given you went with James for Anzac Day, doesn't that suggest you felt the other candidates weren't quite there?
""I think James for Anzac Day because he has won three medals and probably got beaten in one last year by Lovett. I think Anzac Day has been a pretty good day for Hird over the years. Instead of saying why, I thought why wouldn't you? It would have been a backhander to Hirdy.
""My job is to get up for this game. It is coming at us and it is going to be a huge game. We don't often play in front of 95,000-plus. To be quite honest, I am not even thinking about it.""
Q: Is there a concern with Matthew's long-term future?
""You can ring up Silvagni and he played fantastic after he was injured. I think you have got to just weight that up. We are not in a hurry to get Matthew Lloyd back. His future is more important than getting him up for the rest of the season. But if we happen to do well and we are there around September then we would consider it. But what the ramification are long-term, we are not sure.""
Q: What are your ideas for restructuring forward line.
""We will probably look at David Hille and Laycock will come into the game soon. We could ruck with Ryder and Laycock and Hille could go forward. I would be quite happy with that. Don't forget Courtney Johns and players like that are sitting in the wings. He came back and played yesterday. We only wanted to play him a half.""
Q: What did you say to Matthew?
""It is just unfortunate. We have seen a lot of great players at Essendon over many years miss basically a year. This is two players on our list we have got out for the year basically. The only positive out of this is it gives somebody on the rookie list an opportunity perhaps play league footy. Jolley has been a very good strong player for us since he has been at the club, Heath Hocking is a very good opportunity for us and Matthew Firman. They would be the three we would consider at the moment.""
