Essendon has included seven returning players for its JLT Community Series clash against Collingwood on Thursday.
Captain Dyson Heppell, along with Jobe Watson, Michael Hurley, David Myers, Travis Colyer, Heath Hocking and Ben Howlett have been named in the 29 man squad that will be trimmed to 26 players on match-day.
“They’ve all had really solid pre-seasons, we’re really rapt with the amount of work we’ve got into them,” Essendon Coach John Worsfold said.
“At various points we’ve had to back them off just to make sure that nothing starts to grumble for them and the guys have done a great job with that.”
Tom Bellchambers, Brent Stanton and Cale Hooker were ruled out.
Hooker is on an individualised program to ensure he’s ready to go for round one, while Stanton should be ready for the second JLT Community Series match later this month.
Bellchambers is ahead of schedule in his recovery from knee surgery.
“Obviously Bellchambers and Hooker – we’ve known for a while weren’t going to be available for this [game],” Worsfold said.
“Brent Stanton has got a slight niggle that we just want to make absolutely sure that he doesn’t aggravate that.
“We’ve decided not to select him in this game but we know he’ll be right for the next one.”
After Thursday’s match against Collingwood, Essendon has a ten-day break before it takes on Gold Coast in Mackay.
The third game against Geelong in Bendigo comes off a 14-day break and then the Bombers have 13 days to prepare for the round one blockbuster against Hawthorn.
Given the time between each match Worsfold said Essendon is likely to field a strong side for each JLT Community Series match.
“We want to get through this one and monitor the workloads of the players, but then how they pull up is going to be really critical for our decision making going into the Mackay game against Gold Coast,” he said.
“Overall, with big breaks in between games, there is every chance we’ll see a lot of our senior players playing all three.”
Match details:
Collingwood vs Essendon
Etihad Stadium
Thursday February 16
7:40pm
The squad
1. Andrew McGrath, 3. Darcy Parish, 4. Jobe Watson, 7. Zach Merrett, 8. Martin Gleeson, 9. Brendon Goddard, 11. David Zaharakis, 12. Mark Baguley, 13. Orazio Fantasia, 15. Josh Green, 17. James Stewart, 18. Michael Hurley, 20. Jackson Merrett, 21. Dyson Heppell, 22. Matthew Leuenberger, 23. David Myers, 24. Craig Bird, 28. Mitch Brown, 29. Patrick Ambrose, 30. Kyle Langford, 32. Travis Colyer, 33. Jayden Laverde, 34. Jake Long, 39. Heath Hocking, 40. Ben Howlett, 43. Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, 44. Shaun McKernan, 47. James Kelly, 49. Matt Dea
