Essendon performance coach James Kelly says the Bombers will keep some cards close to their chest during Thursday’s final pre-season clash against Geelong.
The club is set to be boosted by extra experience at GMHBA Stadium after fielding a young side in last week’s JLT Community Series loss to Carlton.
Kelly said while the team’s first pre-season hitout provided a chance to experiment with the side, Thursday’s match will be taken as a more genuine dress rehearsal for the rapidly approaching home and away season.
“I think it’s much more serious (than last week),” Kelly said on Wednesday.
“The experimenting is always good. It’s always good to see what you’re going to get, get some data, educate some kids – all of that stuff is really relevant and valid.
“But now we sort of have to play as well as we can.
“We’ll still do some things and keep some things up our sleeve for round one, but pretty much we’ll have a good look at the team and the balance of the team and how we want to play.”
Kelly said the nature of the modern football industry means clubs must be careful not to reveal all of their secrets before the season kicks off.
“I mentioned before that we hold stuff back a little bit and the amount of work that opposition teams put into each other – they know a lot about each other and how to play and they have systems in place,” he said.
“The element of surprise is not as big as it was 15 years ago, but you have to do that now.”
Exciting forward Orazio Fantasia, tough on-baller David Myers and regular first-choice ruck Tom Bellchambers are all likely to return for the Bombers against the Cats.
Fantasia was restricted to just 13 senior games in 2018 and suffered a finger injury in January, but Kelly said the speedster has had a productive pre-season managing his workloads with more care than in previous years.
“The good thing with a finger (injury) is you can still run.
“He’s had a really solid pre-season, he’s worked out a bit of a balance of (not) overtraining and still training enough to get better.
“I look to him having a really good year.”
Orazio Fantasia is expected to take his place in the Bombers' line-up on Thursday.
The experienced trio won’t be joined by Cale Hooker as previously expected after the important defender suffered an unfortunate calf strain that will keep him off the field for approximately four to six weeks.
Kelly said while the poorly-timed injury is disappointing for Hooker, he expects the 30-year-old to recover well.
“It’s disappointing for ‘Chook’, he was tracking pretty well throughout most of the pre-season so it’s frustrating to stumble right at the line.
“Cale’s really experienced and he’s really professional, so those guys you tend not to worry about.
“That and he’s also had ten pre-seasons under his belt, so it’s not as hard to get your fitness back to where you need it to get to.”
The club’s last JLT Community Series clash is set to begin at 7:10pm on Thursday, with the final team revealed on essendonfc.com.au at 6:20pm on Wednesday.
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