Robert Shaw has praised the leadership of David Zaharakis after his starring performance in the Bombers round one match against Gold Coast.

Zaharakis picked up 33 possessions and kicked two goals in a strong four-quarter display.

The 26 year old was named in Essendon’s leadership group and Shaw said he could have been a consideration for the captaincy.

“He was magnificent, he really was,” Shaw said.

“It just shows sometimes you don’t need the captaincy label alongside you to be a leader.

“He was a magnificent leader and that flowed into his football.”

Shaw said the Bombers desperation to stay in the contest in the first quarter may have led to the team sitting deeper in defence which then played in to the Suns hands as it freed up their dangerous half back line.

“The team pushed back deep - a little bit of protection for (Mitch) Brown in his first game against (Sam) Day, obviously (Paddy) Ambrose had a huge job to do on (Tom) Lynch,” Shaw said.

“It just looked like they gave the space to the Gold Coast boys off half back.

“(Matt) Rosa had 11 (first quarter possessions) on the wing, (Steven) May had eight, (Trent) McKenzie had eight, (Adam) Saad had half a dozen.

“By trying to defend they actually gave the ball to those distributors that we talked about last week.”

According to Shaw, the Bombers were able to become more dangerous when they maintained a better forward line structure, creating opportunities for Mathew Stokes (27 possessions, three goals).

Shaw said the former Cat and other experienced players including Brendon Goddard, James Kelly and Adam Cooney will have a key role to play this season.

“They’re going to be really important for direction,” Shaw said.

“I don’t expect them to be ‘three-voters’ every week… but they’re going to get better as the year goes on.

“The stable affect they can have on the development on those young players is going to be critical.”

Jayden Laverde, Nathan Grima, Mark Jamar and Sam Grimley didn’t play in the senior side on the weekend but could be considered for the match against Melbourne.

“The good thing about this team –the glass half full – is there are options out there,” Shaw said.

“I think the longer this season goes and the more settled the side becomes, it’s going to develop into a very, very encouraging football team.”

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