An Essendon delegation led by Chief Executive Xavier Campbell has arrived in the Northern Territory as the Club looks to further strengthen its ties with the Top End.

General Manager of Football Rob Kerr and General Manager of Community, Academies and Women's Football, Darren Harris, have also made the trip north.

“We’ve had a lot of involvement with the Northern Territory and Indigenous communities,” Campbell told Bomber Radio.

“We’ll spend time in Tiwi on Bathurst Island and we’ll do some work in the community up there about how we can create a greater impact, not just around football but around some community and social outcomes.

“And also a bit of talent work up there and working with AFLNT – the Tiwi Bombers are in a bit of hardship at the moment financially so [we’ll look at] how we can play a role to support them in their transition through this challenging period.

“There will be some meetings with Government as well about how we can have a greater presence up in the Northern Territory.

“We’ve got a lot of supporters up there. We’ve got strong historical links so it presents a good opportunity for us.”

The Bombers Next Generation Academy includes the West Arnhem and Tiwi Islands regions as well as the Hume, Moonee Valley, Moreland, Mitchell and Macedon Ranges regions in Victoria.

Under the AFL rules, clubs cans develop multicultural and indigenous talent in their allotted regions and then if the player is deemed good enough to be drafted, the relevant club can select that player in a similar manner to the way father-son prospects are picked up.

“The Next Generation Academy is a big thing for us – we want to turn that into not just a participation and engagement play, but obviously competitive advantage,” Campbell said.

“We want to find unique talent that we wouldn’t find otherwise.

“Tiwi Islands and West Arnhem are places we can do that ... through the north west corridor of Melbourne, the Calder region, we feel we can do that too in the multicultural and indigenous space.

“For us it’s going to require some investment early on and we’ve already done a lot to this point and we want to take it to another level.

“It is as much about the social and personal outcomes there as it is about the football outcomes.

“That’s something we want to make sure we get a really good handle on to make sure our Next Generation Academy programs are really well rounded and not just too focused on one area.”