Essendon Development Coach Paul Corrigan has one clear message in mind for the 2014 season, development of the club’s young VFL squad.

The Bombers have added teenagers Alex Hickey, Aaron Heppell and Angus Milham to the squad among ten signings ahead of the 2014 season.

Corrigan said a well structured pre-season program was paying dividends among the whole group.

“They’ve been going really well, they’ve been training three nights a week with each night focusing on a specific area of the game that we’re looking to work on,” Corrigan said.

“The boys conditioning stuff has been pretty good also so I think they’re reasonably fit at the moment.”

“2014 is obviously all about development for us a football club, hopefully we can get the group playing the way we want them to play and we’re hoping we can mirror what the AFL team is doing.”

Former Docker Josh Mellington is the only player in the VFL squad with senior experience and despite being just 21 there is hope his AFL experience can play a pivotal role as a leader in the squad.

“Obviously Josh has had experience on an AFL list before, we have got a lot of young kids in the group, the more experience we bring in the better,” Corrigan said.

“We hope Josh can bring some guidance and help the guys that were here last year who have got the experience as well so that he can add to that.”

Corrigan praised the work of the entire squad this pre-season for their willingness to work hard.

“I think all the new recruits have been impressive in their own way, I don’t really like pointing out people out, I think they’ve all been training quite well”

Corrigan said it was fantastic two former VFL Bombers in Zac O’Brien (Brisbane Lions) and Patrick Ambrose (Essendon rookie list) were picked up after a strong showing in 2013.

“When you look at Zac O’Brien and “Patty” (Ambrose) they two great guys who worked really hard last year.”

“They may not have played every game last year but when they did they showed enough and it’s shows the program that we’ve got.”

“When you look at recent years as well, we’ve had fair few guys that have been given chances, not only Essendon but at other AFL clubs as well.”

“We are about developing our players but If we manage to find some young kids that we can add to our list in the future or get an opportunity elsewhere, that’s a huge motive for us as coaches.”

The VFL season kicks off on Sunday April 6 with the club’s Round 1 clash against the Casey Scorpions at Windy Hill.

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