Essendon Performance Coach Hayden Skipworth says the Bombers have a number of strong contenders for the captaincy.

The Club is expected to make a decision next month, slightly later than usual given the amount of new and returning players in the squad.

“We’ve purposely waited longer just to get the group together and sort of feel each other out a little bit,” Skipworth said.

“We’ve got Jobe (Watson), ‘BJ’ (Goddard), ‘Hep’ (Dyson Heppell), ‘Hooksy’ (Cale Hooker), ‘Hurls’ (Michael Hurley) – we’ve got some really super leaders so whoever is Captain I’m sure they’ll do a super job, but the other guys will be just as influential.” 

Goddard led the Bombers throughout 2016, before a late season injury opened the door for Zach Merrett to Captain the side.

“We’re spoilt for leaders at the moment – we got to bring on a few last year that we probably wouldn’t have got to see in the leadership group, in Zach Merrett and Joe Daniher," Skipworth said.

“They’re certainly going to add to our leadership this year.”

The Bombers players were put through a searching session on Wednesday that involved around a quarter of match simulation.

“We’ve got a four day break so it was always the plan to get a bit of match play in and then we finished with some lactic blocks at the end,” Skipworth said.

“It was a big session leading into the break and now they’ll recover well and we’ll crack in again (next week).” 

Skipworth said the enthusiasm and willingness among the returning players to do extra work remains at a high level.

“We couldn’t kick them out of the gym and get them off the track, they’re buzzing around and loving every minute of being back with the Club.”