""He’ll probably miss,"" Sheedy conceded tonight. However a fitness test later in the week we confirm Murphy's availability or otherwise.
In the likely absence of Murphy, Sheedy wasn't giving too much away when it came to suggesting a replacement. With the recent form of the Bendigo Bombers, a number of players are putting their hands up for senior selection and it the match committee will have their work cut out.
""I’m not quite sure yet, we’ll have a look at them tonight, we have four or five options, we will just have to have a look at them,"" Sheedy said when asked of possible replacements.
A couple of those vying for selection could be the trio of South Australian draftees in Paul Thomas, Angus Monfries and Henry Slattery who all trained strongly this afternoon and have been impressive in recent weeks for Bendigo.
One player Sheedy has left definitely left out of selection contention is Courtney Johns, after playing his first game for almost two years last Friday night for Bendigo.
""He won’t play this weekend, not in the firsts. When I looked at last week's game, I’m glad we never played him, because he needed to get some balance and touch in a serious sort of match,"" Sheedy said.
This afternoon was the last training session in Melbourne for Essendon before the team fly out on Friday for the Round 11 match, and the Bombers are fully aware of the big fortnight that lies in front of them, heading into the mid-season break.
""We have two decent games to win, Adelaide in Adelaide and West Coast over there, so it’s a good challenge for us, we are nowhere near the eight and we are striving to get there"" Sheedy said.
""It’s a very important game, Adelaide are a couple of games clear of us, and we just have to start stringing a few wins together. So from our point of view it is a very important game just because of that.
""We played pretty well over there against Port Power a couple of weeks ago, and hopefully we will take a better side over.""
