""We thought long and hard about playing him last week,"" Essendon assistant coach Robert Shaw said. In the past we have fallen for it and played him a little underdone and that hasn’t been in the best interest of Dean. We were in a desperate situation and he would have helped us against Hawthorn but we decided to give him a run for Bendigo.""
""He did all that we would have expected in that game. There was some real quality there as you would expect. He paced himself a little but kicked two goals and did all we asked of him. With Bendigo having the bye this weekend it makes it a bit awkward – if we don’t play him he has another week without football. I think he would be a very good chance of playing a role for us off the bench.""
In other injury / selection news, Essendon selectors are still expecting James Hird to be available to play against Geelong last weekend. Hird suffered a bruised knee against Hawthorn but has improved further today and he looks set to start against the Cats.
