Control the controllables, get to work.

That’s the crux of Essendon CEO Craig Vozzo’s approach as he enters his second full season at the helm.

Since taking on the role in December 2022, Vozzo has overseen a slew of on and off-field changes at the NEC Hangar, including an onus on bolstering the recruiting and football departments, as well as extending the club’s community outreach.

Joining the Bombers at a similar time to Senior Coach Brad Scott, the pair have established a strong working relationship over the course of two seasons with a unified outlook for the club’s future.

While external pundits are keen to hear the club’s internal predictions for their 2024 season, Vozzo told 3AW that the focus is still drawn to daily improvement on the park.

“We want to win as many games as we can with a view to qualifying for finals, but that’s not our start point. Our start point is what we can control and the professionalism we bring to the club, the growth we can have through our list and our team,” Vozzo said.

“Brad and I are aligned on a lot of things and one of them (is) standards, the expectations one has of themselves as a professional athlete and the lifestyle that’s required.

“We both felt, probably separately without communicating, that area needed to improve and Brad’s gone about with our key football department staff and most importantly our leaders within the playing group in addressing those issues before the off-season and certainly through the pre-season.

“Brad and I, the team and the club crave exactly the same success that our supporters do. (Brad) hasn’t put a number on it, and he does that because he’s very focused on the ‘now’ and the controllables within his sphere, growing day-by-day and week-by-week.”

Following on from Scott’s assessment that the club’s recent recruiting was aimed to steer away from ‘sugar hits’ and draw attention to long-term development, Vozzo is bringing a similar mindset to the overall operation of the club.

“For us it’s not a sugar hit, it’s building a sustainable team, department, and brand of footy that hopefully gives us longevity and some sustained success. None of those are given, they’re built,” Vozzo said.

“I speak to a lot of Essendon people regularly who are (frankly) sick of us talking about what we’re going to do, and they want to see action and delivery, so that’s our focus.

“The key for me coming into a big football club is the unity and walking in the same direction together. How do we bind people together and get people working in the same direction not just through good times, through bad times (as well).”

“That’s the key thing in terms of consistency as an organisation and building culture, has been to move forward.”

The young talent of the Bombers’ list will be key in driving that move forward, and it’s been evident in Vozzo’s messaging for the club over the course of the build into the 2024 season.

Round one showcased a promising start on that front, with former top 10 pick Archie Perkins producing arguably a career-best performance against the Hawks, while Sam Durham provided important boosts of energy stepping up in a new midfield role.

Speaking to Saturday AFL, Vozzo highlighted the long-term potential within the squad.

“Brad talked about a core group of young players having the ability to grow together over the next eight years and that included some of the young guys that we’ve recruited from other clubs this year,” Vozzo said.

“I’m not talking out of school as it’s the same thing I’ve said internally and to our board, the growth of our team and longer-term success is going to come from the guys we’ve drafted over the last two to five years. (Some of) those guys haven’t played a lot of footy largely due to injury, (but) our growth is going to come from that group and I’m super excited with what they can do.

“I’ve seen the work they’ve put in certainly over the last 12 months but more particularly over the last three or four. The attitude’s good, the work’s been done, hopefully the growth comes.”

Among the recruits, the added experience of ruckman Todd Goldstein has been a standout for Vozzo in the early months of 2024, with the veteran lending a wealth of knowledge for the side’s ruck stocks.

For Vozzo and the football department, the strategy behind bringing the club’s oldest current player on board was clear from the outset.

“We have Sam Draper, who was going in for groin surgery (at the end of 2023) and missed a large part of the year and then Nick Bryan, who’s 22 years old. There was a gap in our list, Todd was available and with the depth he provides he’s also a pro as well,” Vozzo said.

“Hopefully it’s more than a 12-month relationship with Todd, we’ve been super positive with (him) and he’s added a lot to our group. He's a gentleman, but he’s got a real steely resolve.”

Increasing the emphasis on bringing big-game experience to the list, the Bombers also have their eyes set on giving themselves more opportunities on the MCG.

Working with the required parties, Vozzo is confident the club can earn extra games at the stadium in future, readying themselves for extra exposure to footy on the big stage.

“That’s our intention (to play more games at the MCG). We’ve talked to the AFL, the MCC are supportive, we’d love to play more games here and that’s a fixturing issue, our deal at Marvel comes up this year so there’s an opportunity to talk about that and put a case forward to see where we land,” Vozzo said.

“Ideally, (we’ll) at least make some small ground in that area and get another game here as the short-term aspiration.”

With the Bombers beginning the early stages of Scott’s second season as Senior Coach, the opportunity to watch the mix of homegrown and recruited talent gel over the course of 2024 shapes as a promising prospect.

Vozzo believes that under Scott, the foundations for establishing a consistent side and wider club are being set.

“I came into the club as CEO at a time where the coach was appointed already, so to me it was really important to have someone I respected or partake in a process of selection, so having Brad there was a massive plus for me. He’s very intelligent, but more importantly with the players he's very clear (and) keeps things simple and very consistent,” Vozzo said.

“He lives what he asks and I’ve been impressed with him at a whole lot of levels, both on-field with the players and also the club-first mentality that he’s brought to Essendon with the respect he shows us and the board.

“He’s got that hard edge, that’s just the way he is. The examples I see are the training standards and off-season input of guys at the football club doing the work and the way they hold themselves with the ‘whole-of-club’ mentality.”