Essendon coach James Hird says the club was always intending on playing in the 2015 NAB Challenge competition.

The AFL announced on Friday the March 7 match against St Kilda in Morwell will go ahead with the club to field a side without players from the 2012 list.

Hird said the club always intended on participating in the match.

“I think everyone from Essendon is happy that we are going to play,” Hird said.

“We always intended to play at Morwell and I think people got a little excited in their comments about us not playing,”

“We were always intending on going there to play and we are looking forward to playing,”

Hird is confident the team can prepare for the upcoming season despite the altered preparation.

“It is not an ideal preparation but we will go down there, put our best foot forward and represent Essendon in the best way that we can to put on a good performance down in Morwell,” he said.

“The people down there deserve a game and AFL footy deserves a game so we are excited about going down there.

“Obviously it is going to be a different experience for us but one we are looking forward to.”

“Hopefully we will have that organised in the next few days but there hasn’t been any official announcement yet on where we can get the players from.” 

Hird labelled comments about the club hijacking the competition as ‘ridiculous’.