Essendon Coach John Worsfold is confident the Bombers have the inside midfield talent to mix it with the competition’s best sides.
The Dons added Jake Stringer to their playing list on the final day of the trade period.
He joins Devon Smith and Adam Saad as fresh signings at the Bombers.
While Saad will feature in defence, Worsfold said Stringer and Smith would spend time as ‘inside’ options in the midfield.
“We felt like we needed to add to that area, not just as inside midfielders but in general talent,” Worsfold said.
“That’s where we feel Devon Smith really fills that need and then, as we require, we believe that Jake Stringer can add that bigger body through there.
“We’ve now got the option to have a big bodied midfielder in there as much as we want – and that is part of Jake’s development … we’ve also got David Myers who we know can play that big strong bodied role through there as well.
“I think we’ve got the depth and the options that we were looking for and we didn’t feel we had to target a specific full time inside midfielder to bring in.
“I think the balance of the players we’ve got has given us some really good midfield flexibility.”
Essendon won’t enter the 2017 National Draft until the 48th selection.
The Dons have secured three players in the top six picks of the draft in the last two years and seven players in the top 31.
That influx of talent in recent seasons allowed the Bombers to use its first pick this year (pick 11) to open the door to bring in the three established players.
“It was obviously a strategic decision in this period that we’ve got some really exciting young players coming through – not only McGrath and Parish that we’ve seen over the last couple of seasons … but some of the other young players including Jordan Ridley, Kobe Mutch and Dylan Clarke who we didn’t see last year,” Worsfold said.
"We’ve got a lot of youth on our list, so we felt as though not adding really high draft picks this year was not critical for us.
“It was more looking for players that fit the mould of the group that we’re building for the next seven or eight years and all these players fit into that age bracket.”
