Essendon Captain Brendon Goddard expects the Club to continue rotating some of its players to manage their workloads throughout the AFL season.

The Bombers opted to rest exciting young midfielders Darcy Parish and Kyle Langford from the clash with Sydney on Saturday.

Captain Brendon Goddard said it was a common theme across the league.

“It’s pretty tough to get through a full season,” he said.

“Darc didn’t miss a beat in the preseason and when you add a preseason into the first six rounds - it’s pretty taxing already.

“You might even see a couple of the older guys later on in the year and the newer recruits rested.”

Jonathan Simpkin joined the injury list on Saturday with a hamstring injury.

He joins hamstrung teammate Mathew Stokes on the sidelines.

“That’s the challenge we spoke about at the start of the year, those guys that are coming off a limited base to see how far they could get through and that there were going to hit a lull at some stage,” Goddard said.