Essendon skipper James Hird is one of five premiership players who will not play in Saturday night's Ansett Cup opener against Port Adelaide at Football Park. Hird will miss along with suspended trio Michael Long, Dustin Fletcher and Dean Wallis. John Barnes has been rested. "James has had some calf soreness and we decided not to risk him,"" Essendon football manager Matthew Drain said. ""We are hopeful he will come up for next week's match against Geelong.""
The Essendon squad for the match is: M. Johnson, Mercuri, Henneman, McAlister, Wellman, Solomon, Ramanauskas, McVeigh, Hardwick, J. Johnson, Barnard, Lalich, Lloyd, Richards, Bolton, Misiti, Lucas, Heffernan, Alessio, McGrath, Moorcroft, Blumfield, Caracella, Hille, Davies, Davis, Jacobs and Rioli. The 28-man squad flies out for Adelaide at 10.25am Saturday morning.
Other senior listed players who will miss this weekend are Jonathon Robran, Rob Forster-Knight and draftess Sam Hunt, Jordan Bannister and Marc Bullen.The club's four rookies - Marcus Kenny, Damien Peverill, David Johnson and Adam Switala - will not make the trip to South Australia.
