Essendon veteran Dustin Fletcher will sit down with coach James Hird in the coming weeks to plan out his 2015 season after announcing he will play on.

The 39-year-old will enter his 23^rd season sitting on 393 games looking to become just the third player in VFL/AFL history to pass the magical 400 game milestone.
A laconic Fletcher revealed he does not expect to play every game next season but would work out a plan to ensure he remained a consistent performer.

“I am not putting my name down for 22 games but I think I can well and truly get between 16 and 19 games out at a rate that is well and truly up to the level of Essendon Football Club and being in that first side,” Fletcher told BomberTV.

“I have had a few chats with Hirdy in the last two or three weeks but he has just said we will sit down in the next couple of weeks and as best we can plan out my season.

“In that planning we will plan out when there is a few games interstate such as Perth that I might not go and when the draw comes out with different games rest days we will plan around that.

“We will sit down to give me something to really aim for and I will do the best I can at training to be ready to go for round 1.”

An always-modest Fletcher revealed he did not consider reaching the 400 game milestone in making his decision to play on in the red and black.

“Not really to be honest. A lot of people speak about it (400 games),” he said.

“If I retired at 393 or I retired at 407, I don’t think I am going to be remembered much different.

“I felt like my body can go again and watching that final when we lost I still felt like I wanted to be and could be out there playing.

“I am rapt to be going on again and all the funs stuff starts now with the training so I will start building up from now.”

The oldest player in the game is not concerned about beginning his 24^th pre-season campaign.

“To be honest I am actually looking forward to the training, I don’t find that as much of a stress as during the year when I guess mentally you have to be up for the games,” he said.

“From now until Christmas I will just enjoy it as much as I can but obviously also pushing myself and doing all the right things.

“There is no doubt it is going to be a hard slog and there will be times when you are almost throwing up, you get home and your muscles are sore and you can hardly walk but that is just part of it.

“In a weird way I look forward to that.”

Fletcher said he had spoken to his family including his champion father Ken about playing on with their full support for his new deal.