""They (St.Kilda) picked a quick side and that worked to their benefit. We had to play some of the players we wanted to make decisions on. It is the Wizard Cup, but you are also trying to get your team right for round 1 as well,"" Sheedy said.
""We probably had four or five players that didn’t play that are fairly quick and strong, such as Damian Cupido, Mark McVeigh and Dean Solomon. So we could actually improve our side by four or five players.""
St.Kilda’s tall forwards clearly had the better of the match-ups last Saturday night. Fraser Gehrig, Aaron Hamill and Nick Riewoldt collectively contributed 11 of St.Kilda’s 18 goals. The situation wasn’t helped when Sean Wellman left the field in the third quarter with a foot injury.
In a bid to stop the influence of Gehrig and Riewoldt in particular, the Essendon coaching panel continually interchanged the defenders. Dustin Fletcher, Adam McPhee, Mark Bolton and Kelper Bradley all having a turn on the two St.Kilda forwards. However, it wasn't a memorable night for the Bomber defenders.
Mark Bolton started on Riewoldt but clearly didn’t have one of his best games. ""He (Bolton) didn’t play well the other night. Nick Riewoldt beat him easily – he didn’t play close enough to him. It will be interesting to put Mark Bolton on Riewoldt again,"" Sheedy said.
Sheedy said the great thing about Bolton is that he has the ability to turn that performance around. ""He has a great attitude to his footy and a terrific attitude to want to get the best out of himself – both on and off the ground. You could not complain about Mark Bolton’s attitude – I rate him with Gary O’Donnell. He puts everything in to try and get everything out of the game.""
