Essendon fans to hold up thousands of 'Stand by Hird' posters against St Kilda on Saturday Essendon coach James Hird has the support of Bomber fans. ESSENDON fans will hold up thousands of "Stand By Hird" posters at Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Fans at the game against St Kilda will be asked to hold the posters above their heads when the Bombers kick a goal and during the quarter breaks in a show of support for embattled coach James Hird. As many as 10,000 posters will be printed. Bombers fans have donated thousands of dollars for the project. Essendon member Nicholas Fogarty said it was time the fans were heard on the drug scandal that continues to engulf their coach and club. "After the emotions of Friday night, we started chatting and thinking, 'What can we as fans actually do?'," Fogarty said. Individuals have been willing to donate $5 up to $100. We had a business offer of $5000, but we actually turned that down because they wanted to put their logo on it and we don't want it to be a political thing. A team of volunteers will surround Etihad Stadium to distribute the posters as the crowd arrives for the first bounce, and others will be stationed at an earlier reserves game at Windy Hill.