Senior coach Ben Rutten says building a more expansive midfield will be one of the keys to Essendon's fortunes in 2022.
The Bombers are set to beef up their engine room this season with the arrival of prized draftee Ben Hobbs, while Jye Caldwell and Dylan Shiel are fit and firing again after missing large chunks of last season.
The added depth has allowed Rutten to throw around the magnets, with Andrew McGrath and Zach Merrett featuring across half-back in last week's practice match against the Bulldogs.
"He (McGrath) played a bit down there, and we played Zach Merrett down there for a little bit as well. Both of those guys have been training a little bit with our backline group and defensive half," Rutten told SEN Breakfast on Thursday.
"Like we do with some of our other midfielders in our forward line – whether they be Darcy Parish, Dylan Shiel, Jye Caldwell or Kyle Langford - we’re just trying to make sure we’ve got a really good spread of players throughout that midfield group.
"The midfield group is more expansive now than just the three midfielders we see on the teamsheet. We want to make sure we spread that midfield group across the ground a bit better, and make sure we’ve got smart ball users and decision makers, like Andy and Zach are, we want to make sure we’re getting the ball in their hands as much as we can."
First-year player Hobbs shapes as a player who could have an immediate impact in midfield, having impressed on limited minutes against the Bulldogs.
An injection of youth rejuvenated the Bombers in their rise up the ladder in 2021, with Rutten confident Hobbs could provide a similar spark this season.
"We’ve been fortunate the last couple of years. We’ve had Archie Perkins and Nik Cox play a fair bit of footy last year, (coming) out of COVID and not having played (NAB League in 2021). We were really pleased with the amount of footy they were able to play, and I think Ben Hobbs is going to be pretty similar," he said.
"He’s physically more developed than some guys who come through in their first season, and we’ve been really pleased with the way Ben’s adapted to the AFL program and the way he goes about his work.
"He’s really professional, he’s a driven young man, and he wants to be the best he can be as quick as he can. We love his attitude and we’ve been really pleased with what we’ve seen from him so far. I think he’s certainly going to have the capacity to play AFL footy this season."
The Bombers will round out their pre-season when they face the Saints at Marvel Stadium in the AAMI Community Series on Saturday night.
Stay tuned to essendonfc.com.au for the team announcement at 5:30pm on Friday.
