Zach Merrett says it wouldn’t surprise him if James Kelly went on to become an AFL Coach.

Kelly will play his 300^th game when the Bombers meet his old side Geelong on Saturday night.

Merrett has worked closely with Kelly since the triple premiership player joined the Bombers last year.

“We’ve obviously been very fortunate to have James come to the Club … I was a shadow for him last year and probably annoyed him with so many questions,” Merrett said.

“He’s a guy that has won three premierships and now played 300 games – he’s just got an enormous amount of knowledge and I wouldn’t be surprised if one day he’s a senior Coach of an AFL club.”

Kelly made his debut in 2002 and has played at least 15 games in all bar one of his 16 seasons at the top level.

“He’s had an amazing career with premierships with the Cats and getting to 300 games is a massive feat becoming the 79^th player in the history of the game to get there,” Essendon Coach John Worsfold said.

“While he’s been at Essendon, he’s been awesome.

“Last year was a tough year for us as a Club and he was one of the guys that came and helped settle things and helped us develop our young players in a year that really was a development year.

“He’s still adding a lot of great leadership around the Club now.

“It’s going to be great to be part of his 300^th game and it’s wonderful that it’s against the Cats.”

Kelly was named on the wing for his 300^th game.

Jobe Watson, Andrew McGrath and James Stewart have been brought into the Essendon side.

Brent Stanton, Aaron Francis and Martin Gleeson miss out.