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HEFFERNAN BACK FOR BOMBERS
Bomber mid-fielder Chris Heffernan will make his first senior appearance of the 2002 pre-season when he lines up against the West Coast Eagles at Optus Oval tomorrow. Heffernan, who was suffering from osteitis pubis early in the pre-season, has made three appearances with the Essendon VFL side in the past month. Last weekend against Geelong he completed four quarters for the first time. Heffernan is one of four players to return to the Essendon side this weekend. James Hird has completed his one-match suspension and was named in the 22 and was newly-appointed vice-captain Joe Misiti. Sean Wellman also returns from a minor groin strain. Paul Salmon has been rested. The full squads for Essendon and West Coast are attached.
Bomber mid-fielder Chris Heffernan will make his first senior appearance of the 2002 pre-season when he lines up against the West Coast Eagles at Optus Oval tomorrow. Heffernan, who was suffering from osteitis pubis early in the pre-season, has made three appearances with the Essendon VFL side in the past month. Last weekend against Geelong he completed four quarters for the first time. Heffernan is one of four players to return to the Essendon side this weekend. James Hird has completed his one-match suspension and was named in the 22 and was newly-appointed vice-captain Joe Misiti. Sean Wellman also returns from a minor groin strain. Paul Salmon has been rested. The full squads for Essendon and West Coast are attached.
Other players to be rested by the Bombers were Dustin Fletcher, Blake Caracella and David Hille. Matthew Lloyd (groin), Danny Jacobs (knee) and Steven Alessio (achilles) will miss through injury. Gary Moorcroft has recovered from elbow surgery and will play in this afternoon's VFL practice match at Moorabbin. Tomorrow's match commences at 1.00pm with the VFL match starting at 6pm tonight.
The Essendon squad is: 15 Rob Forster-Knight, 23 Mark Bolton, 1 Mark Johnson, 30 Sam Hunt, 6 Sean Wellman, 9 Adam Ramanauskas, 14 Jason Johnson, 5 James Hird, 16 Paul Barnard, 32 Justin Blumfield, 3 Aaron Henneman, 2 Mark Mercuri, 24 Joe Misiti, 11 Damien Peverill, 20 Ted Richards, 10 Mark McVeigh, 26 Chris Heffernan, 38 Shane Harvey, 12 Daniel McAlister, 36 Jordan Bannister, 35 James Davies, 28 Cory McGrath.
WEST COAST: 3 Chris Judd, 8 Richard Taylor, 9 Ben Cousins, 10 Michael Braun, 12 Greg Harding, 13 Josh Wooden, 15 Callum Chambers, 18 Rowan Jones, 23 Darren Glass, 25 David Sierakowski, 26 Travis Gaspar, 28 Ashley Sampi, 29 Ashley Hansen, 31 Kane Munro, 32 Andrew Embley, 33 Phil Matera, 35 Kasey Green, 37 Andrew Williams, 38 David Haynes, 39 Adam Hunter, 40 Troy Wilson, 41 Jeremy Humm, 45 Quinten Lynch, 46 Trent Carroll,48 Brent Tuckey
With the start of the home and away season less than four weeks away, Essendon captain James Hird has urged Bomber fans to grab a membership for season 2002. Essendon has just under 30,000 members to this stage and is still hopeful of equalling the record figure of 36,493 set last season. ""We want to be the best club on and off the field. The players will try and do the job on the field and we need our supporters to do the job off the field,"" Hird said. Essendon members have watched an outstanding football side in the past three years and Hird says there is no reason to think the Bombers won't be highly competitive again.
