Mark Baguley has been a regular in the Essendon defence in recent seasons.

He’s rarely missed a game in the last three years and has won the Club’s most courageous player award for two straight seasons.

So it was a surprise when Baguley ventured forward last week against Sydney, but Line Coach Hayden Skipworth was pleased with his output.

“We thought he was excellent for a guy with virtually no training or playing time as a forward, we thought his forward pressure was great,” Skipworth told Bomber Radio.

“He had five tackles in the forward half which was really high for the lack of entries we had.

“He had four shots on goal, probably could have had a few more – he dropped a chest mark inside 50 and was probably a little bit stiff at times on the lead.

“But to have four shots on goals, 16 touches, five tackles – we thought he had an enormous game as a pressure type forward and he’s certainly going to add some strings to Woosha’s bow next year when hopefully all of the guys come back and hopefully we have more options to go forward.”

Skipworth had been pushing for several weeks for Baguley to shift forward before Coach John Worsfold gave the move the green light in the week leading up to the match against Sydney.

“I guess with (Mathew) Stokesy going out injured with his hamstring a spot opened up in the forward line,” Skipworth said.

“We’re a very young forward group, so to have a senior body down there and a guy who is as combative and competitive as Baguley I thought it was a good fit.”

After a match winning performance against Melbourne in round two, Joe Daniher hasn’t been able to exert the same level of influence on games.

But Skipworth said the 22 year old spearhead’s output is higher in a lot of areas.

“We know he’s working hard.  We know he’s 202 centimetres, it’s going to take time,” Skipworth said.

“If you look at the stats from previous years he’s up in disposals, up in marks, up in uncontested marks, tackles, score assists – so he has improved.

“The thing he’s probably found hard this year is that he’s the main forward.

“He’s had Paddy Ryder, Hurley, Hooker, Carlisle – so he’s always been the second or third tall down there.

“Due to circumstances through games as well we’ve had to move a forward behind the ball just to stem the flow or put a forward in the stoppage. 

“He’s also been outnumbered in the forward line, teams have had six defenders and we’ve had five forwards at various times.  He’s competing hard, it just hasn’t fallen his way in the last few weeks.”

Skipworth has taken charge of an inexperienced forward group this season.

Last week it featured Orazio Fantasia (14 games), Mason Redman (one game) and Mitch Brown (22 games) alongside Daniher (55 games) and Baguley (one game as a forward).

In a unique season, Skipworth said ‘efficiency’ in the forward line will be a key measure of success, rather than just goals scored.

“We can’t rely completely on total numbers this year so it’s going to be about how efficient we can be in front of goal, how efficient we can get moving the ball, how efficient we can get kicking inside 50.

“Most of our forward are kids in an AFL sense, so we’ve got to make sure individually they’re growing and developing as well as the team side of things.”