Hird said his side was ready for their biggest test of the season.
“It is a huge game. It’s a good oppiortunity for us to play against the best team in the competition for the past six, seven year,” Hird said.
“Our players are excited about that.”
“They beat us quite convincingly last year, really beat us up around the ball and got away to a very good start.”
“We know we’re in for a big fight.”
The Bombers coach said his side was ready for the occasion no matter the opposition.
“We want to play well against Geelong, as we do against every other club,” Hird said.
“What they’ve done over the past six, seven years as a football club you have great respect for, and when we run out there tomorrow it’s about playing the best football we can play and restricting them.”
The Bombers could make up to six changes this weekend with a number of stars set to return from injury and suspension.
Brent Stanton is a chance to play despite a groin injury and Michael Hurley, Dustin Fletcher, Jason Widerlich, Dyson Heppell, Jake Carlisle and Paddy Ryder are all set to return.
Hird praised the professionalism of the group in their ability to train to a high intensity each week.
“They’re playing really good football, they’re training really hard.”
“The one thing we’ve spoken about as a group is to keep our training standard up, and if we keep our training standard up that will go into our games.”
“There’s obviously distractions but… I marvel at the group… the way they’ve been able to handle that distraction and move through it.”
"We're really happy with the way they trained on Tuesday. We had a huge week before the GWS game (last week) in terms of training, knowing that we had some bigger games coming up. As a coach, I couldn't be happier with their attitude around training.
