Essendon skipper James Hird trained strongly this afternoon and indicated he will be available for Friday night's match against Carlton. Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy will give Hird every opportunity to prove his fitness for the Round 3 game and said it is ultimately the skipper's decision. ""We don't give him many calls but we will give him this one. We will pick him and if he drops out he drops out. Very rarely do players miss the following week with corkies. The good thing is if he does play he is fresh because he only played 20 minutes last week,"" Sheedy said at training this afternoon.

Q. Mark Mercuri was under the pump last week - were you happy with his performance against Melbourne?
A. He is not at his 100% of Mark Mercuri yet. At the present he is just a good player and previously we have known him as a brilliant player. He is a good player now and a bench player at the moment.

Q. Is Joe Misiti in the same category?
A. Well Joe has probably performed better than Mark. He was top five in our best and fairest last year. We have had to go for a different mix in the mid-field this year. We are rotating players off the bench so sometimes good players have to come off too.

Q. Dean Rioli played well on the weekend, you must be happy with his progress?
A. He has played well in both the matches. We have to make sure he is playing well and he gets consistency in his game. He is one of our leaders out our footy club now because we have a very young list.

Q. Will you make any changes?
A. Probably two. A couple of the kids played quite well for the Bendigo Bombers so we have to make sure we look at them.

Q. What sort of progress is Jobe Watson making?
A. Jobe will be out for this week - he won't play.

Q. Are you happy with the way Damian Cupido has come on in his past two games?
A. Cupido has a little bit of Michael Long and Gavin Wanganeen in the way he plays. I would think that he has probably only played 20 hours of AFL football in total - so for a kid that has only played 20 hours of AFL footy he has come along quite well.

Q.History shows that Essendon v Carlton games are always competitive, what do you make of Carlton's current form?
A. I think Carlton played very well against Collingwood last week. It was close all night until the last quarter. They really pushed last year's Grand Finalist so we have to really make sure that we are switched on. They have a new coach and they are desperate for a win so we have to make sure we play to the best of our ability. Carlton are always going to tough.