But while Kevin Sheedy suggested a one-week absence for Hird, he wouldn’t completely rule him out and will name the captain in this week’s team. In line with AFL rules, despite being an outside chance, Hird must be named in the team to be eligible to play.
""We’ve got to pick him if he’s any chance, but he probably won’t play. And we won’t play him if he is not right by Saturday,"" Kevin Sheedy said before today’s training session.
""He will know if he is right to play or not and that’s fair enough, it’s what being the captain is all about. We don’t need to taking anybody into the game with injuries.""
Ty Zantuck was also missing from tonight’s training session at Windy Hill, but in some positive news for the Bombers, his injury appears to be less serious than originally feared and may now only miss one match.
""He hasn’t got an injury that is as bad as first thought so that is good. He got kicked in the leg and there was a measurement of stress in his MRI and scans last week, but they are better this week by 80% or 60%,"" Sheedy said.
One player who looks set to return to the side is Dean Rioli. After gaining some match fitness for Bendigo last weekend, he will be an important inclusion against the Cats.
""We have got a couple of important games coming up with Geelong and Collingwood, they are both proud clubs. But Geelong is our main focus; they’ve won one and lost two also."" Sheedy said
And the coach doesn’t seem to be too concerned about the impact of the side’s fade out in the last two weeks, believing the win against the Hawks may have been the spark the team needed.
""We are starting to build up towards somewhere near match conditioning, which was a bit of a problem because we had a lot players come into the side in Round 1 and 2 that perhaps needed the game.
""Hopefully we will get it right with consistency in selection and playing players so they get pretty fit. Match fitness is a hell of a lot different than just running and training.""
