James Hird will play against Collingwood at the MCG tomorrow night. That was the major news to come out of Essendon's final training session at Windy Hill this afternoon. Hird completed the first half of tonight before leaving the track as is customary for him on the final training night of each week. He iced the ankle and assuming he pulls up well tomorrow he is a certain starter. It completes a miraculous recovery by Hird who was expected to miss up to four weeks after landing awkwardly on the ankle against Carlton.

A number of senior players including John Barnes, Dean Solomon and Jason Johnson trained lightly indoors. The Essendon players completed a 75-minute skills session. They spent the last 15 minutes doing goal-kicking practice.