Essendon has made just one forced change to its side to take on Richmond in the annual Dreamtime at the ‘G blockbuster on Saturday night.
Star defender Michael Hurley returns after overcoming a hamstring strain to replace injured backman Patrick Ambrose, who bravely played through a calf strain in the side’s strong victory over GWS last week.
Bombers coach John Worsfold said it was a “really disappointing” setback for Ambrose, who had been at his best in recent weeks.
“Patty’s been a really solid contributor to the team,” Worsfold said.
“It was a remarkable effort really that he managed to play out the game the other night. We knew he’d hurt his calf during the game and he was hobbling, but he was still able to do a good job on (Jeremy) Cameron for us.
“So it was a real credit to Patty to hold up for the team, but it does mean he misses a few weeks now.”
Worsfold said he is looking forward to having Hurley back at his disposal and said the two-time All Australian is feeling fresh ahead of the important match.
“Hurls is a wonderful footballer and the couple of weeks off with his slight injury has meant some of the other issues he’s had with his body he’s well on top of,” he said.
“He’s feeling really good, feeling the best he has for probably a couple of months, and we’re hopeful now that that means he will continue to improve in terms of his footy week in, week out.”
Worsfold gave credit to his side for working its way out of a disappointing form slump and said he has faith that it can continue to bring out its fierce gameplay.
“We’re really confident that we can continue to play with the same intensity and the same style of footy.
“We’ll play a different opposition every week, so the games will look slightly different, but in terms of the way we want to play we’re really pleased with what the team’s put out there in the last couple of weeks.
“We know we’ve had a couple of reasonably good games earlier in the year then we had a really tough patch where we really stumbled, but we addressed a lot of the things that we believed was happening in that period and it was a credit to the players to maintain their work ethic to come out of that.”
After running into some teething problems, Worsfold said he thinks the Bombers are really starting to jell together and is confident of another strong performance at Saturday’s big occasion against the Tigers.
“The guys are starting to really understand and work well together, so hopefully there’s a lot of upside in that regard as well.
“Dreamtime at the G is obviously a big event. We’ve had Kevin Sheedy who was the mastermind behind it and it’s been a big week for him with his Legend status.
“(It’s) a big night for the footy club and a big night for us to be involved, but then we’re playing Richmond who are the reigning premiers and a very exciting team, so we want to really make it a brilliant game of footy.”
FINAL TEAM:
B – McGrath, Hooker, Baguley
HB – Saad, Hurley, McKenna
C – Zaharakis, Z. Merrett, Fantasia
HF – Smith, Ridley, McDonald-Tipungwuti
F – Stringer, McKernan, Stewart
R – Bellchambers, Goddard, Heppell
I/C – Dea, Langford, Guelfi, Laverde
Emergencies – Green, J. Merrett, Clarke, McNiece
IN – Hurley
OUT – Ambrose
