James Hird was back out on the track this morning after a 'bug' sidelined him from Monday's session. The skipper is a certain starter for the Wizard Cup semi final against St.Kilda. It was close to all hands on deck at the team's 90-minute skills session. Damian Cupido and Mark McVeigh are close to full training and despite wearing a brace on his right hand to protect his ruptured finger tendon, Dean Solomon is still in the thick of the training action.

It was take a-ticket-stuff in the medical room two weeks ago, but things are suddenly looking up for the Bombers. Essendon has got through the first two weeks of the Wizard Cup unscathed and Ben Haynes (foot), Jason Laycock (shin splints), Cupido (knee) and McVeigh (ankle) are all virtually back to full fitness. All could yet play a role in the Wizard Cup if Essendon should progress to the grand final.

Despite the game being a semi final, Sheedy hasn't lost sight of the fact he wants to use the Wizard Cup to get his player’s match fit for round 1 against Port Adelaide. Sheedy is not reading too much into the club’s Wizard Cup form.

""If you get to a grand final in a Wizard Cup it means you’re in tune early but you know a lot depends on what happens throughout the year. Last year we got beaten badly in the Wizard Cup and nearly got in the top four. I think the Wizard Cup is about who’s up early and who’s not,"" Sheedy said.

""Fans might believe that the Wizard Cup form is the be-all and end-all form, and I just think that it’s not,"" he said. ""If you had 10 clubs in Melbourne and lost 3,000 members because they performed terrible, that’s $2.4 million and we just can’t afford that in Melbourne. Some clubs are up and some clubs just aren’t ready yet, but in a month’s time or three and a half week’s time, they’re ready to go and that’s the deal.""

Even though Essendon is using the pre-season to introduce young players and give senior players much need match time, don't discount the fact that Essendon is still keen to win the Wizard Cup. Sheedy said the team would have their work cut out for them to beat the in-form St.Kilda team. ""They're (St.Kilda) a very exciting youthful group of players that take risks and play a pretty good brand of footy. They are very quick and they probably played Richmond not at their best. I mean the Tigers had a lot of new players in central backline positions and they had players playing at the opposite end of the ground that they normally play at,"" he said.

Make sure you get behind the Bombers on Saturday night at The Dome. Click here for ticket information.