Bannister could be the man given the nod to replace the injured Dean Rioli in the side to take on the Kangaroos this Friday night at the MCG. Bannister has been in excellent for in the reserves in the past month kicking eight goals aginst Bendigo three weeks ago and a bag of six against Port Melbourne last Sunday - including the match-winner on the final siren. Bannister played in Essendon's ANZAC Day clash against Collingwood.

Q. Kevin, you said you need to the mid range players to stand up and take on more responsibility. Since then, you have gone from eight to third, so do you feel that is happening?

A. I think some players have grabbed an opportunity and that has been pleasing. Alessio has been one of those players - he has gradually got better for us. In fairness to him, he had not really had a pre-season but perhaps by Round 9 you consider you have played a bit of footy now. He is up and running and we were probably punting and gambling on that. Heffernan and Blumfield have been up there and have been in our best players consistently a bit more than they were when perhaps Hird, Misiti and those sort of players were in the line-up. From Heffernan's point of view I thought he was one of our best players last weekend and that was pleasing for Chris.

Q. Do you think the whole squad has maybe got stronger in recent weeks through adversity?

A. A little bit, but we still have a lot of improvement still there. I think Paul Salmon coming into the side has been a real bonus for us - he gives them that extra bit of leadership. I think we lost three of four of our vice-captains/captain at the one time and Scott Lucas was out for five weeks. From that point of view I think the squad has grown a bit and hopefully it can grow a little bit more.

Q. Do you think in a strange way you will look back in September and think the run of injuries you had earlier on may be a blessing in disguise?

A. Well you hope so. It has happened before. It probably happened back in 1993 - we kept on playing young players in the side all the time and they sort of grew with the year. That was a real bonus and some of them are still around now. Hopefully Reynolds, Harvey, Welsh and these sort of young players will come through and be very good players for us by Round 22.

Q. Is Moorcroft a chance for senior selection?

A. We haven't had selection yet so we will sit down tonight and work that one out.

Q. Is Henneman a chance to play?

A. He is a chance - he needed the game last week and there might be one or two ahead of him. It depends and it depends on the weather as well.