The striking charge laid against Essendon's Dean Rioli from the weekend's match against Sydney at Stadium Australia has been withdrawn. After viewing the incident the umpire James decided Rioli had no case to answer. Rioli will still face the tribunal tomorrow evening for the incident with Paul Williams in the third quarter. Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy sat down and looked at the video today and will have a talk to Rioli tomorrow. ""We don't need to have any players up on charges - we have enough good players out at the present time. We are hoping we are giving that message to all of our players. When you don't have Hird and you don't have Lloyd and Joe Misiti is still out for five weeks - we don't need to lose players to reports,"" Sheedy said.

Q. Rioli is starting to find some form - it must be disappointing to have him up on report?
A. He is a very, very talented player and very creative around the goals. There is nothing worse than your players going out on reportable charges. I personally think he is just starting to peak and play really serviceable footy for the team and we need that. I would say we have just started to see the best of Dean Rioli just lately.

Q. It is a long way to Stadium Australia from the city centre - how did you find the travel?
A. That is a difficult thing that the AFL should really look at - there is no doubt about it. I normally stay at the Regent and I would have to forgo that to make sure the team stayed at the Novotel which is just five minutes from the ground. It is a perfect residence for the players. We had to bus out for training and then back out again for the game and then back later that night. I would like to hear a lot about what the supporters felt about the stadium. When we bused out for the game we actually missed the stadium. I would love to know who the bus driver was barracking for!

Q. Do you think the AFL fans in the Eastern and Southern suburbs of Melbourne are being neglected by the AFL?
A. We have to make sure they are not because at the present time they lost their ground yet in the other city - Sydney - we are wanting to go out there. We want to be very, very careful that we don't forget to put a development program in for all of those clubs in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. They really are the centre of Melbourne, basically population wise and we really should look at restructuring and developing football and supporting them in some way shape or form.
A. I was at a function last week and there was two major questions I asked the people at the function - should Waverly be sold and pulled down and 99% of that audience said definitely not. The other issue was - should Gary Ablett be inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame and 96% of the would have said yes. I like communicating to people like this and hearing their opinions when I public speak. I suppose when you look at the answer, sometimes you have to tell the boys down at Colonial.