Essendon assistant coach Mark Harvey believes 12 months ago that Lockett v Hunt would have been one of the great mis-matches. And while the gap in experience is still enormous, he believes Hunt has taken giant strides this season. ""If racing parlance, his trackwork has been very good. He is trailling very well and should go okay fresh,"" Harvey said. ""Having said that, he is playing on a bloke who has kicked the most goals in the history of the game. It will be a good experience for him no matter what happens.""
Harvey said there has been a big transformation in Hunt during the pre-season. ""He has got stronger, lost weight and his endurance has improved,"" Harvey said. ""He has completed his studies and is now able to concentrate on football and he is relsihing being able to do that."" Hunt played on Ted Richards in last weekend's intra-club match and did a reasonable job.
The Hunt-Lockett battle will be one of the interesting match-ups this Sunday. The winner of the 15-a-side game will collect the Fox Footy Cup in what is set to become an annual event. Essendon fans will be eagerly awaiting the return of some of their stars this weekend. Justin Blumfield and Mark Mercuri both struggled with injuries last season but are training well. They will want to get some of the football this Sunday.
The coaching staff however will probably be more interested in the performances of the bombers younger players. James davies is one such player. Davies was the bombers' number one draft selection in 2000 but failed to play a senior game last year. He has trained well during the pre-season and has grown almost an inch (2.2cm) during the off-season and now stands at 191cm. Rob Forster-Knight, Marc Bullen and Jordan Bannister will all create plenty of interest as will Shane Harvey who kicked five goals in the Bombers' intra-club practice match last weekend.
These weekend's match commences at 4pm and will be shown on delay on Foxtel commencing at 6pm.
