Last week’s win over Collingwood at the MCG was without a doubt our best performance for the year. We were really happy with the way the side put pressure on and we certainly lifted a notch from what we’d put up earlier this year, so we were really pleased with last week’s result.

From my point of view, the forwards all contributed really well and that probably goes for the whole team because it was one of those days when the whole team really gave us something. We had ten individual goal kickers for the match, as well as four multiple goal kickers, including Adam Goodes who finished with three goals.

While all our forwards put in a good effort last week, probably Goodes and Ben McGlynn were the real standouts in my mind. Benny and Goodesy were sensational and we look to them to give us some energy and some speed in our front half and when they play like they did on Friday night, it can really set us up and make it difficult for any opposition to stop.

Losing Sam Reid to injury this week is obviously disappointing. He’s an important player for us certainly structure-wise, but we feel we’ve got players who can come in in his absence.

We feel Tommy Walsh can fill that role and this week will be a terrific opportunity for him. He is a different type of player to Reidy but he’ll slot into a similar type of role and we’re really looking for a good contest from him, which is basically what we ask from Reidy as well. We hope he can come in and fill that role and make the most of his opportunity.

There are some differences in the way Tommy and Sam play because Tommy is a bit older and is a bit bigger, so he plays as a bit more of a big-bodied player, rather than how Reidy relies on his athleticism and jump. Tommy uses his body really well and crashes a few packs and in the Fremantle game that he played a couple of weeks ago, he was involved in a few really strong contests, so that’s his real strength and that’s what we’re looking for tomorrow.

We’ve got another young player set to play his first game this weekend in Tommy Mitchell and we’re excited to give him a chance at senior level. We might see him spend some time in the forward line, but he’s been playing mainly midfield in the reserves. He’s very capable so he might get a look in up forward at times, similar to how our other midfielders spend time up the front.

Essendon are going to be a very tough challenge for us this week. They’ve had a fantastic start to the year and are playing really well. They’re a very good stoppage team with Jobe Watson and Paddy Ryder and then defensively they’ve shown throughout the year that they’ve really improved in that area. I think that’s added to their attacking power as well, so it’s going to be a challenge for us, but one we hope following our performance last week that we’re up for.

It’s great that this weekend’s match is a sell out at the SCG. The players love it when it’s sold out, and I think this is the second sell out we’ve had here at the SCG, with the first being the Geelong match earlier this year. The players are already talking about it being a big game, so there is no doubt that they love it when it’s buzzing here at the SCG.