Essendon champion Scott Lucas says the Bombers could fast-track Kyle Langford’s development as a midfielder by using him as a run-with player.

Langford returned to the Dons senior side against Sydney last week after a stint in the VFL.

For most of his 30 games at the top level, Langford has been used across half forward but against the Swans the 20 year old was deployed in the midfield.

He honed his midfield craft in the VFL over a number of weeks and finished with 16 possessions on his return to the senior side. 

Lucas said adding a run-with player to the Dons arsenal now would be handy if the side qualifies for the finals and targeting Brisbane's Dayne Zorko on Sunday could be a good starting point, given the way the Giants were able to shut the dynamic midfielder out of the game last week.

“I would like to think so because of the need to develop a tagger if you have ambitions of playing finals and the impact taggers have had on the oppositions best ‘mids’ (across the competition),” Lucas said on the prospect of the Bombers sending a player to Zorko.

“Essendon has been unlikely to go that way because simply they just haven’t tagged this year.

“I’d like to see Kyle Langford groomed over the second half of the year in that run-with role. 

“I thought he was very good against Sydney last week and we’ve seen the effect that shutting out the opposition’s best midfielder has had.”

The Lions are coming off a 60-point loss to GWS and have won just two games this season, but Lucas said the visitors boast a number of match winners that can cause the opposition headaches.

“It was a disappointing game for Brisbane last week but they’ve had some really good performances this year and they’ve got some emerging talent coming through,” he said.

“Their depth is through the midfield – Zorko is having an outstanding year, Rockliff has missed some football but his clearance work has been exceptional … they’ll have to step up with Beams out of the team. 

“Then you’ve got Stefan Martin, one of the best ruckmen in the competition – he’s slightly different in that he covers ground and almost plays as a ruck-rover.

“You must respect those players because they’re class acts.”