Martin Gleeson is making full use of the knowledge of those around him as he prepares for the 2017 season.

The Bombers defender will have All-Australian backman Michael Hurley by his side next year and also triple premiership player James Kelly who finished runner-up in the Club’s best and fairest in 2016.

“There is a lot of experience and a lot of good players in there,” Gleeson said.

“It’s great for me personally having the likes of Michael Hurley down in the backline again.

“He’s someone I can learn a lot off and he’s a very calming influence back there.

“Kel has been awesome for me – anyone that has played in three flags you know they’ve got a lot of experience and he hasn’t been shy in passing it on to us.

“I’ve stuck by him a little bit and he’s helped me out a lot. I’ve learnt a lot off ‘Kel’ last year and hopefully that continues this year.”

Gleeson is in the middle of his fifth AFL pre-season and the former North Ballarat under 18 player said the intensity on the track has lifted.

“We’ve been building on things over the past few years and this year it has probably gone up another level,” he said.

“We’ve got all of the boys back which has been awesome and we’ve done a lot more ‘football’ than we have in other years and obviously the intensity has been up.”

Gleeson has played 42 of a possible 44 games in the last two seasons. 

He said the focus of his pre-season will be to continue to add size to his frame without neglecting the fundamentals that have made him a regular in the Essendon line-up in recent years. 

“I’ve got to keep working on my size and my strength, that’s something that’s been a focus since I got here,” he said. 

“I’m trying to continually improve on that and then also not forget about my football and keep improving different areas of my game.”