Cale Hooker leads four inclusions for Essendon in Saturday’s mouth-watering clash with Brisbane, and coach John Worsfold is “rapt” to have the experienced Bomber back at his disposal.
An untimely calf strain prior to the club’s second JLT Community Series hit-out delayed Hooker’s start to the year and left the side’s defence somewhat exposed.
But the backline held up well in the side’s stirring victory over Melbourne last week, allowing the Demons just 22 scoring shots from 63 inside 50s.
While Hooker is equally effective in the forward line, Worsfold revealed the 30-year-old is likely to spend most of his time in defence against the Lions.
“’Hooksy’ is obviously a wonderful player and one of our real senior leaders in the group, so he brings all of that to the team and talent-wise (his influence) is a given,” Worsfold said on Thusday.
“He’s worked extremely hard in terms of his fitness overall, he’s ticked all of those boxes for us and we’re rapt to have him available.
“We know he can take a big mark up forward for us, so if we need that we can use that. He will most likely spend more time back, but we’re starting to build that flexibility within our team.”
Versatile youngster Mason Redman will also play his first senior game of the year on Saturday after breaking through in two impressive performances at AFL level in 2018.
Redman suffered a significant ankle injury in late November but has worked tirelessly to get back to full fitness and recapture his best form.
His strong pre-season form continued in the VFL side’s first game of the season last week where he gathered 21 disposals, seven marks and six inside 50s from half-back in the team’s 121-point drubbing of Frankston.
“Over the last three weeks Mason’s form has been outstanding. He was building game time initially, but he’s been up at full game time and really playing the way we want to see our half-backs playing.”
Another player who caught the eye against the Dolphins on Sunday was Mitch Brown (five goals from 17 disposals), who will rejoin the senior team to help fill the void left by injured forward Shaun McKernan in the forward line.
Worsfold said he had been “really pleased” with Brown’s response after being left out of last week’s victorious AFL side due to team balance.
“Mitch was aware he went out of the side because we brought in a second ruckman.
“He didn’t go out of the side because he was out of form, we were pleased with what he was bringing to the team.
“It’s great to see that he still performed really well at VFL level and comes in in good touch.”
Veteran David Myers rounds out the inclusions after being a late withdrawal due to illness last week.
“He was just ill, he felt a bit ill the day before the game. It was a matter of how he woke up the next day and he was still pretty crook, so we made the early call that morning to pull him out,” Worsfold said.
“(He is) another one of our leaders and he adds that strong leadership and strong-bodied role through the midfield.
“He was really rapt to see the way the boys performed last week and he knows he can add value there.”
David Myers has overcome the illness that kept him out of last week's win. (Photo: AFL Media)
McKernan and fellow injured Bomber Kobe Mutch are joined by young Dons Matt Guelfi and Aaron Francis on the sidelines, with the latter pair omitted from the line-up.
“Guelfi really misses out for Redman coming in (with) Redman playing that half-back role really well as I talked about.
“‘Guelf’ didn’t force his way out of the backline into the midfield, so he misses out altogether this week. But it’s also a good opportunity to freshen him up, he’s been carrying some soreness for a couple of weeks.
“Aaron misses out because Hooker comes into the side and with the balance of what we think we need this week.
“Aaron gets the opportunity, again, to freshen up and be available for the Kangaroos game the following week.”
Brisbane enters Sunday’s match unbeaten and Worsfold was full of praise for the emerging team, but he said the Bombers will take on the Lions with new-found confidence after their exciting defeat of the Demons.
“The Lions are playing great footy and they’ve got a really talented squad. For us, (the focus is on) matching our performance from last week with the same energy and effort and continuing to build the style of game we want to play.
“We’ve got a lot of areas we still want to get better at, but the players took a lot of confidence out of seeing the way it came together on the weekend and are excited on building on that.”
The match will begin at 2:10pm.
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