It has been more than six years in the making, but Nathan Lovett-Murray will finally mark his 100th game of AFL football in a grudge match against old rivals Carlton this Saturday night at the MCG.

“It’s been a long and tough journey but I’m very proud to be where I am now at the Essendon Football Club,” Lovett-Murray told media this morning.

Click here from 11:30am to watch Lovett-Murray and Alan Richardson speak to media. 
“I didn’t get drafted until I was 21. The usual route for a player to get here is to get drafted at 18 and to spend a bit of time here, but I sort of had to do it the tough way.

“I’m very proud to be a part of the Essendon Football Club and to be playing a milestone against Carlton this week, it’s a big game.

“We’ve been pretty disappointed in our efforts the last couple of weeks and I know the boys want to come out this week and make up for that and are really keen to play against Carlton, have a crack.”
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Assistant coach Alan Richardson said the selection committee had no hesitations in welcoming the 27-year-old immediately back into the side after serving a two-week suspension for rough conduct, saying he is an important player for the Bombers.

“His physicality is something that we’ve missed - his long running, his aggressive running. He’s a very important player for us,” Richardson said.

“We were very keen to get him straight back in. I think irrespective of the win-loss ratio, it’s an obvious choice for us.

“We think the way he plays certainly inspires others in terms of the physical attack on the footy. We think he’s probably if not our best, one of our best, and we think from a spiritual physical point of view he’s an outstanding member of our team.”
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Lovett-Murray was one of six changes for the Bombers off the back of their uninspiring performance against Fremantle last weekend.

Angus Monfries is expected to miss one week with a slight quad strain while Mark McVeigh has been ruled out after spending five nights in hospital with a badly infected elbow.  Alwyn Davey, Brent Prismall, Ben Howlett and David Myers were all omitted.

“We had a couple of forced changes this week but the form of the other four player just didn’t warrant them staying in the side given that we have a pretty healthy list in terms of a lack of injuries,” Richardson said.

“We have other players knocking on the door wanting their spots.”
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Richardson said the Bombers’ inability to capitalise on opportunities that had presented themselves in the Geelong and Fremantle games had led to their 0-2 win-loss record – something the side would be looking to correct this week.

“We need to take our opportunities when we have these opportunities,” Richardson said.

“We think that if we can get our best footy on the park then we can beat any side when we are playing well and some of our performances against the better teams last year would signal that.

“At this stage, at the risk of going over old ground, we just haven’t executed well and made the most of our opportunities.”