""Yes it has been a long time coming. My five-year-old son is hanging out to sing the team song. In Brisbane he got a lot of it as a three year old but he is going to be very happy when that win gets chalked up,"" O’Donnell explained at today’s press conference filling in for Kevin Sheedy who was keeping a close eye on the NAB Under-18 Championships.
""And we are thinking that could be this week against a side that is in the same area on the ladder as us. We have had times during the year when we have played well and haven’t got the results and we’ve had three or four games when we have dropped away.
""I think the Essendon side we hope for the next ten games will be a competitive outfit and one that is remoulding and reshaping for the 2007 season.""
One factor that will make a big difference for the Bombers will be the return of full back Dustin Fletcher. O’Donnell today confirmed he would come into the side on Friday to combat Kangaroos spearhead Nathan Thompson.
""He should be right. Yes he has trained for the week and he will be back this week. We are very pleased with that because he is an integral part of our defence and we look a different side with him in the team,"" O’Donnell explained.
And with some doubt over James Hird, O’Donnell is quietly confident that he will get up also for the Round 13 clash.
""We hope so. He trained well on Monday and we expect he will train well tonight so we are expecting him to be fit.
""It was an interesting one last week with James coming off thinking he had hurt his hamstring and I think that medicos worked out that it was a little bit of the scar tissue sort of dislodging from that area.
""He was able to play out the game but only at about 80 percent. He has been able to run 100 percent this week so it is not a re-occurrence of what happened earlier in the year and he should be right to play.
""I think the first time that he was top pace sprinting was on Monday but I think it has been a softly softly approach though to make sure that nothing had re-occurred from the previous hamstring incident.""
To watch the full press conference click here.
