Essendon was one of the surprise stories of 2021, making finals in Ben Rutten’s first year at the helm.
Looking ahead to 2022, the question will be whether the Bombers can back that up or continue to climb the ladder.
GM of Football Josh Mahoney admits last year they were simply in the process of working out where they fit in the pecking order.
“Last year we had to get a good handle on where our list was at. We’d made a lot of changes, a lot of guys had injury interrupted periods, we had players coming in, we had significant players leave at the end of last year,” Mahoney told SEN Breakfast.
“Last year was really about ‘where is our list at, how can we maximise individual players, can we get some development from guys’, so that was our real focus and obviously Ben Rutten’s first year as senior coach, ‘can we start to bed down a game style we can build on every year’.
“We got into the finals which was a good effort, but really every team is trying to make finals and that’s no doubt our aim again this year.”
Mahoney believes they are developing a potent group through the midfield.
“I think our strength is in our midfield. Our midfield group is well established and played a lot of footy together now,” he said.
“We look forward to having Dylan Shiel back in there playing a full season and Andrew McGrath a full season.
“We saw Jake Stringer go in there last year and we think we’re adding a number of players who can run through that position.
“We see that with the best teams, they all have eight or nine guys run through that.
“We think our defence took shape last year. Jayden Laverde and James Stewart went back and I think adding Jake Kelly strengthens up our defence a lot.
“And then our forward half mix up there, we’ve got Harry Jones coming through, we’ve got Peter Wright who had a good season. Cale Hooker is a big out, but we think we’ll be able to manufacture a good forward line and kick winning scores.”
The decision to delist Dylan Clarke in November leaves Essendon with two empty list spots at the present time.
Mahoney said the club may only fill one in the supplemental selection period given Michael Hurley’s recovery.
“We’ve got two spots available. We’ve got four guys training on for those two spots,” he said.
“We’ve got right up until the start of the season to make that decision, but we’ve got two spots which gives us options if we need to.
“At the moment at this stage we’re definitely taking one, whether we take a second, we’re still making our mind up.
“We obviously have the mid-season opportunity to bring a player in and Michael Hurley’s recovery has probably been a head of schedule so there’s a few things in it at the moment.”
Mahoney also provided an update on Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, who has taken leave from the club.