Assistant coach Nathan Bassett has praised the support of Neil Craig since he joined Essendon in the off-season.

Bassett joined the Bombers at the start of the 2014 pre-season to look after the teams ball movement and forward structure.

“Neil has been great for the coaches,” Bassett said.

“We’ve got quite a young coaching group taking out the senior coach and the development coaches, I’m the next oldest coach after Bomber.

“So it is a reasonably young coaching group and Craigy’s been great support for those coaches.”

Bassett, who played 210 games for the Adelaide Crows singled out his former captain and fellow assistant Simon Goodwin as a future senior coach.

“Simon certainly takes a lot of the training and has a very close relationship with the mids,” he said.

“He certainly tries to steal all the good ones from the forwards and backs and put them in the midfield- so he’s got a great relationship and rapport with the senior players.”

Hailing from Adelaide, the 37-year-old spoke of the move to Melbourne last year.

“It’s been an interesting year. There’s been a lot to learn from a footy perspective, but a lot of its been quite good fun.”

“I think you look at it more as a family perspective.

“When you move your family interstate it’s a significant move to move your children away from their grandparents.

“So you do certainly think about that and you want to make sure your in it to be the best that you can be and that you’re putting in for your work and also that you’re looking after the people who are most important to you.”

Bassett coached SANFL club Norwood to back-to-back premierships in 2012 & 2013 before joining the Bombers.

“I think you consolidate your philosophy on footy, on how you attack and defend, how you should set up, how you can develop a strong culture within a playing group that really enjoys coming to work each day,” Bassett said.

“So I think I’ve learnt a lot, and there’s things I wouldn’t have been learning if I was still doing my last job (at Norwood).”

“There are lots of days where I miss my last job because it was a lot of fun, but I’ve certainly learnt a lot in this new job.”

Ahead of his first match coaching against his old side, Bassett shed some light on the Crows’ better players.

“Brodie Smith has been outstanding; he has had a terrific year, along with Dangerfield and Slone. Then Walker gives them a fair bit coming back into the side as much as from an emotional point of view as a performance point of view as well.”

“I think the last month they have been big improvers. I saw them play against Collingwood and I thought that’s the best they’ve been in probably two years.”

“Three and a half of their last four weeks has been very good footy, a big improver in contested footy and they’re certainty playing very fast.”