Assistant coach Matt Egan has praised the response of the club’s playing group after a gruelling three week block of training.

Over the past three weeks, the coaching panel has lifted the intensity of the training sessions for the players in an attempt to increase their fitness before the start of the season.

Now in his fourth year at the club, Egan noted the heightened improvement in training standards this pre-season.

“The last three weeks have definitely been the hardest three weeks since I’ve been in the club,” Egan said.

“It has been a really hard training phase with big sessions on the Monday and Friday and we’ve been rapt with what we’ve been seeing.”

With the Bombers’ first NAB Challenge game against St Kilda less than a fortnight away, the playing group will have a lighter run on the training track this week aiming to leave themselves fresh for the series.          

Egan said the upcoming NAB Challenge would present opportunities for many of the club’s younger players to gain match practice.

“It’s a good opportunity for some guys on our list that we haven’t seen a lot of before,” Egan said.

“We’ll put some good top up players around them and we’ve definitely got some great VFL listed players that will get some good experience.”

Essendon will play St Kilda in Morwell on Saturday 7 March with the game kicking off at 4:40pm.