Sheedy made it very clear that Rioli is very much wanted at Windy Hill amid specualtion that the star 23-year-old is going to be hotly pursued by West Coast and Fremantle. ""I'd like to have Dean Rioli play at Essendon and that is fair enough,"" Sheedy said. ""I remember when Dean was training with the Eagles and if they were so impressed they should have picked him in the draft and not left him to the rookie draft. I'm not going to get into player contracts at this time of year but we know there are going to be a lot of players after Essendon players and that is a credit to them,"" Sheedy said.
Sheedy also said he had no doubt that Mark Harvey will make it as a senior coach. Harvey has been linked with both Fremantle and St Kilda senior coaching jobs next season. ""He is going to be a very good coach Mark Harvey - don't you worry about that,"" he said. ""They will ask about Robert Shaw, they will ask about Mark Harvey, they will ask about Terry Daniher. They will come up with the coach that they want - that is what happened with Mark Williams and Neil Daniher. So from Mark Harvey's point of view there is a very real chance he will be interviewed - as long as he doesn't give away too many trade secrets. Some clubs looking for coaches will interview a lot of assistant coaches, take all the knowledge and then they don't get the job. You would want to be a pretty shrewd assistant coach to not get sucked inot all of that.""
A question mark still remains over James Hird and whether he will play this weekend against Collingwood. ""He thinks he is (going to play) and I'm naturally hoping that he is but I am not going to take a risk with him - he would want to be very close to 100%. Jim has always been keen to get out there and play - he is one of the champions of the AFL. He knows how his ankle is and he'll know if he is right,"" Sheedy said.
Sheedy said that Justin Blumfield will resume in the VFL this weekend but that a number of toher players including Dean Rioli and Michael Long would push for selection. ""I think four and possibly five players could come back this week. Obviously whether Hird plays is still a bit of an issue. I think Mark Johnson and Dean Solomon will play and John Barnes needs to make sure he gets in the side - how many talls can you play,"" Sheedy said. Personal-wise Sheedy said the club is the strongest it has been for some time.
The Bombers can all but sew up top spot for season 2001 should they get over Collingwood on the weekend. ""We would like to maintain top spot. We have been there all year, played a lot of young players and gone through some pretty tough footy the past month. It has been a great experience for our younger players - it has been terrific to see Mark Bolton play a really good game on Goodes and young Rob Forster-Knight got the handball that set up last weekend's win,"" he said.
Sheedy also said he was very pleased to see Steven Alessio put the finishing touch on last weekend's win. ""He has been hard done by probably even by myself. We have had a lot of tall players at the club over the years and getting John Barnes last year probably pushed him back into the pack a bit. Before his knee injury he was probably in our best six players nearly every match and it has taken him a few weeks to get back to full fitness after a knee injury - a bit like Matthew Allan at Carlton.""
