Essendon full-forward Matthew Lloyd could join captain James Hird in the Bombers line-up to take on the Western Bulldogs. Hird is considered a certain starter this Saturday night, and Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy said on tonight's training form Lloyd will probably join him. ""I wanted to wait until tonight to see how Lloyd and Hird got through training. They both trained very, very well and I think most likely they will both come back in. We had a big day out here today - we had some World Champions to open up our training this week against the Western Bulldogs. We had Johnny Famechon come along and Barry Michael and a lot of Australian champions - Paul Ferrari and those sort of boxers. It was great for them to talk and meet players like Hird and Lloyd. We are probably setting it up for a big week coming up against the Western Bulldogs. If Hird and Lloyd both got back into the side, it would be a huge lift to all of us here at Essendon,” Sheedy said.

Q. Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews has commented today - that umpires should look at awarding free kicks against players that continually stage free kicks - what are your thoughts?
A. That puts a lot more pressure on the umpires in the game and I think there is a hell of a lot of pressure on umpires making the right decision as it is. To try a work out if a player has milked a free kick or not - I think that is going to be a hell of a difficult process to sort of work into a game. Leigh (Matthews) probably never had to milk a free kick in his life because he never stayed - he normally just went through about three people a game and smashed everyone else in site. I can see why it would frustrate him - he was such a brilliant player and such a hard-hitting player. I wouldn't like to think the umpires will be pulling out yellow cards and red cards and warning players about staging.

Q. What do you think can be done to stop the problem?
A. The only thing that I would think of, is perhaps that the umpires could make mention of players that continually stage free kicks. Then if it did come up a few times to Geoff Gieschen the umpires department could warn the player that any more staging by this player will just result in play-on.