And while the champion player is still early in his preparation having only been back in full training since January, the club believes he has done the work on the track to deserve a game.
""There was conjecture as to whether he was going to play or not, it could have gone either way. But it was decided that he has had enough preparation to play,"" Essendon assistant coach Gary O’Donnell explained today.
""In a 100 minute game you would expect him to play 75-80 minutes of that in his usual sort of role up forward and in the middle.""
It will be a strong Essendon side that will see Hird line up alongside Bombers captain Matthew Lloyd who will be playing his first competitive match for almost 12 months.
""It is still 38 days until we play Round 1 in the normal competition, but I think he would be pretty excited and probably feel like a nervous draftee ready to play his first game.""
But the return of Lloyd will give the Bombers the confidence to get off to a strong start in the pre-season.
""Our preparation has been good, we have had a hit out against a pseudo-opposition a few weeks ago,"" O'Donnell said.
""We have a good feeling, but there is probably a good feeling at 16 clubs at the moment, so we need to start getting the respect back that we lost last year.
""You don’t necessarily have to win to get respect back but obviously we are trying to advance into the second round.""
