IT’S time to get fair dinkum – that’s the message Essendon’s match committee has sent after it named a full strength squad for this weekend’s practice match against the Western Bulldogs at Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo. Essendon has named eight players that were missing against St Kilda last week in its squad of 28. It is clearly the best team the Bombers have named this pre-season and arguably their strongest side full stop. This Saturday afternoon will give a very clear indication of what lies ahead.

Coming into the Essendon side this weekend is Paul Barnard, James Hird, Scott Lucas, Cory McGrath, Mark Mercuri, Joe Misiti, Adam Ramanauskas and Dean Rioli. There are some very serious names among that list and it is an indication that this weekend is a very serious game of football. Essendon needs to find some form and confidence as Round 1 approaches and it needs to start this weekend.

Again it will be the performance of the ruck / midfield that will be of plenty of interest to Essendon supporters. And it will be thoroughly tested by the Western Bulldogs. Luke Darcy is one of the best ruckman going around and he dominated the last time these two sides met. David Hille and co. will have their work cut out. At ground level the likes of Scott West leads a young brigade of on-ballers that will be eager to impress.

In defence, most interest will centre on who gets the job on Nathan Brown. Brown has made a name for himself out of the goal-square recently and would be certain to line up there again. Small forwards have created problems for the Bombers in the past two weeks – Stephen Milne from St Kilda and Leigh Harding from the Kangaroos. It is a problem Essendon needs to fix – one that is heightened by the push of Mark Johnson into the midfield.

Up forward, Matthew Lloyd would love to get a bag of goals under his belt but it is centre half forward that probably poses the biggest challenge right now. Danny Jacobs and Mark Bolton might be the pair looked at this weekend assuming Scott Lucas plays across half back.

The Essendon squad for this match is:

Jordan Bannister
Paul Barnard
Mark Bolton
Damien Cupido
Dustin Fletcher
Aaron Henneman
David Hille
James Hird
Danny Jacobs
Jason Johnson
Mark Johnson
Jason Laycock
Matthew Lloyd
Scott Lucas
Cory McGrath
Adam McPhee
Mark McVeigh
Mark Mercuri
Joe Misiti
Damien Peverill
Adam Ramanauskas
Joel Reynolds
Dean Rioli
Dean Solomon
Darren Walsh
Jobe Watson
Sean Wellman
Andrew Welsh

The BomberLand website is the only place you will be able to follow the Bombers' match when it takes on the Western Bulldogs this Saturday, March 8th. The practice match kicks off at 2.00pm and the BomberLand team will bring you live scoring and quarter-by-quarter summaries straight from QE Oval in Bendigo. The real Essendon website keeps looking after the real fans!