By Mick Jeffrey
April 18 2003

These two teams have had a number of close battles over the years, especially in the nineties. Essendon play the Bulldogs again on Saturday night at the Dome. Both sides have had to make several changes to their sides. Essendon are missing a number of key players to injury and suspension, but still pose a threat to the best of teams, especially after coming off a shock loss last week to Carlton.

As for the Bulldogs, Wayde Skipper finally gets his chance to impress after being in the 25 man squad for the first 3 rounds of the season. Daniel Cross and Keiran McGuinness also get an opportunity as the reaction from last weeks defeat is swift.

Steve Kretiuk has a hamstring problem, and adds to the list of key defenders on the sidelines. There is no doubt that he will be missed last week (except by Matthew Lloyd's finger). Patrick Wiggins has been dropped after failing to get on the stats sheet last week.

But the main talking point amongst the omissions has been Nathan Eagleton. It's not because he was dropped, but because his future as an AFL player, let alone as a Bulldog, is now in severe doubt. Another case of promised so much but delivered so precious little.

TEAMS:
BULLDOGS:
B: Robbins, Bassett, Hahn
HB: R.Murphy, Hargrave, Dimattina
C: Smith, West, Alvey
HF: Bowden, Bandy, Power
F: Croft, Brown, McGuinness
R: Darcy, Giansiracusa, Johnson
INT: Skipper, Cross McMahon, Garlick
EM: Wiggins, Harris, Faulkner

ESSENDON:
B: M.Johnson, Fletcher, Jacobs
HB: Solomon, Lucas, Reynolds
C: McPhee, Hird, McVeigh
HF: Rioli, Bolton, Mercuri
F: Cupido, Lloys, Walsh
R: Hille, J.Johnson, Peverill
INT: Alessio, Welsh, Bannister, Harvey
EM: Richards, Forster-Knight, Winderlich