Hocking, who was elevated to the Bombers’ leadership group in 2011, said all supporters had a role to play in the future success of the club.
“We made a big impact last year with just over 50,000 members which was a club a record and this year we’re pushing to get 60,000 members. We think we’ve got a good fanbase to be able to extend the extra 10,000 fans to turn into supporters,” Hocking said.
“The players and coaching panel are really trying to push for that one day in September in order to win a premiership so we really do need all fans on board to sign up as members to help us get there.
“It is a bold move aiming for 60,000 but that’s what you have to do to move forward in the AFL and we really urged the fans out there to support us by becoming a member. It’s a really good investment if you want to see Essendon back up there again.”
The 23-year-old, who booted 17 goals during the 2011 season, said he was pleased with the development of the team this year.
“We aimed for improvement on the previous year where we finished 14th and we felt we got that finishing 8th this year and making it to a finals series,” he said.
“It was obviously disappointing not to do better in that final game (against Carlton) but I think we had a lot of development and improvement through gaining James Hird and Bomber Thompson as coaches and the players have really learnt from them.”
Hocking said that the upcoming move from Windy Hill to Melbourne Airport was vital for the club to reach the ultimate success.
“I think it’s important for Essendon as a team moving forward to really push to have the best facilities in the competition; we really need to top market facilities.”
“While it is hard leaving Windy Hill, we know that if we want to be the best team in the competition we need the best facilities. So far, we’ve had a lot of members and fans really chip in to the Flight Plan project but we’re still calling on all fans to keep getting behind this venture,” he said.
The Bombers have commenced their 2012 pre-season campaign under the guide of coach James Hird and new high performance coach Dean Robinson.
“We’ve had our testing stage to see where blokes are at and that’s always tough to come back to. Dean is really pushing us hard in the weights room to get us stronger and more physical in order to compete with the better teams in the competition,” Hocking said.
“While it is tough at the moment, we just want to keep improving and building on last season and I think the key to that is to develop physically and mentally and then to work on our game style.”
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