Essendon’s latest recruit, Ben McNiece, says boosting his fitness base will be his top priority throughout his first AFL pre-season.

McNiece’s graduation from the Club’s VFL program was sealed last week when he was signed as a Category B Rookie.

The 24 year old resigned from his job and has commenced his new profession as an AFL player.

“It has been unbelievable.  It’s pretty surreal, it’s a dream come true and all of the boys have been really welcoming,” McNiece said. 

“Probably the biggest thing is my fitness, being able to run out games and get up to that AFL standard because there is such a big jump. 

“The biggest thing for me will be to get up to speed with that and a lot of the football stuff will fall into place because I’ve been down here for a couple of years.”

Essendon has a rich history of recruiting players from the VFL.

The 2016 Vice-Captain Mark Baguley played for Frankston before earning his shot on the Rookie list.

Former Dons Stewart Crameri (Bendigo) and Michael Hibberd (Frankston) also landed at the Bombers after impressive showings at the state level.

While Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (Essendon VFL) and Michael Hartley (Coburg) made seamless transitions to the AFL last season as they became mainstays of the Essendon line-up.

“It’s an awesome thing to see blokes like that do the hard work and get rewarded for it,” McNiece said. 

“It was always something in my mind that … the reward comes from hard effort.

“Walla took his chances and you see where he is now, same as Michael Hartley – there is only great things to come from both of them, so that’s always a big inspiration to the boys in the VFL who toil away tirelessly.” 

McNiece was named Essendon VFL’s Best First Year player in 2015 and finished third in the Best and Fairest in 2016.

In 16 games last season, the Vice-Captain averaged 16 possessions as he lined up in defence opposed to the most dangerous opposition small forward. 

McNiece said the relationships he formed through the VFL side had made his first few days as an AFL player a little easier. 

“A lot of the boys I’ve played with previously, so it was like coming home really,” he said. 

“It has made it really easy to transition into the Club.”