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Ben's bad break
They say you need depth to win a Premiership. Essendon is going to find out early in 2004 if it has the reserves to genuinely push quality sides. An all too long injury list grew today after Ben Haynes tore a quadricep muscle in the Bendigo Bombers' 17-point loss to Coburg at Punt Road. Haynes will be sidelined for at least four weeks.
They say you need depth to win a Premiership. Essendon supporters are going to find out early in 2004 if their side has the reserves to genuinely push quality sides. An all-too-long injury list grew further today after Ben Haynes tore a quadricep muscle in the Bendigo Bombers' 17-point loss to Coburg at Punt Road. Haynes will be sidelined for at least four weeks.
The injury was a devastating blow to Haynes who, having recovered from a stress fracture in his foot, was pushing hard for selection in next weekend's season opener against Port Adelaide. Essendon already has Dean Solomon (finger), Mark McVeigh (hamstring) and Sean Wellman (foot) certain to miss Round 1.
A fit Dean Rioli is critical to the Essendon midfield. Coach Kevin Sheedy believes Rioli is getting his fitness to a level where he will have a serious impact on the game. ""There are always critics of Dean because of the size of him. He looks the fittest we have seen him for quite some time. It is pretty hard to trim down those tree trunk legs of his,"" Sheedy said.
