Essendon remain confident forward Stewart Crameri will play in Saturday night’s AFL match of the round against West Coast, despite last weekend’s knee injury,
The Bombers initially feared Crameri might be a long-term casualty when his knee buckled in a tackle against Brisbane.
But he was cleared of ligament or bone damage and trained on Friday with his left knee strapped.
Crameri is equal-third on the AFL goalkicking with 16 after six rounds.
“If there was structural damage, we certainly wouldn’t have risked him,” said coach James Hird.
“He’s ready to play, so we’re excited about it … we’re very confident.”
The Eagles are unbeaten, while the Bombers suffered their first loss on Anzac Day when Collingwood won an epic match by one point.
West Coast’s healthy free kick count has received plenty of publicity this week, in particular whether their players duck to draw head-high penalties.
Hird said it would not be a problem for his team this week provided they were first to the ball more often.
“We train our tackling every week, we think we’re a good tackling team,” he said.
“There are a lot more areas (with) the Eagles that we need to concentrate on that’s what has been in the papers so far this week.
“The message for our players is `get in for the ball first’.”
West Coast continue to impress despite a long injury list, with Adam Selwood to miss with a hand injury and star ruckman Nic Naitanui unable to return from hamstring soreness.
Eagles forward Ryan Neates – the AFL’s smallest player at 169cm – will make his senior debut and Mitch Brown will return to the team, while Essendon are unchanged.
The Bombers decided against recalling Michael Hurley (hamstring) and Tayte Pears (knee).
While Hurley is a big absence from Essendon’s attack, assistant coach David Teague said their forward pressure had been impressive.
“A lot of the clubs probably over the last couple of years have been really trying to put that forward pressure on and of late Essendon are probably leading the way,” Teague said.
“That’s something we have to be aware of, our ball movement out of the back half, we need to be smart.”
Naitanui’s absence means Essendon would appear to have an advantage in the ruck, with Paddy Ryder and Tom Bellchambers going against Dean Cox and Scott Lycett.
But Hird rates Cox as probably the best AFL ruckman of the last 20 years and said he would be a formidable challenge.
AAP rhv/