Jake Carlisle, Jake Melksham, Travis Colyer and Ben Howlett have had strong pre-season campaigns so far and Hird expects them to play a key role in the team’s development this year.
“These guys have been on our list for a few years now, have played 20 or 30 games and the strengthening of them as players has been really important for us,” Hird said.
“There are some exciting signs there for us and we will see what happens over the next few weeks.”
Hird said the club’s more experienced players will begin to play over the next few weeks leading into the season opener against North Melbourne on March 31 at Etihad Stadium.
“It wasn’t great over in Perth and we didn’t play that well but we took a very young side over,” Hird told SEN radio.
“We intend over this week and next week to start to get our more senior players going.
“The guys have had a big pre-season, we are only four weeks away from the season starting and we want to make sure we have our best team playing our best football from round one.”
