Essendon coach Mark Thompson is excited by the return of half back Courtenay Dempsey to the senior team after his first match at AFL level for 2014 on Friday.

Dempsey returned for his first match of the season in the Anzac Day clash against Collingwood after a club-imposed suspension for poor training standards.

Thompson said the dashing defender added important flair from the back half to the Bombers line up.

“We lost a bit of experience before the game with Myers and Hocking so Courtenay added that element,” Thompson said.

“His ability to make good attacking decisions when he first got on the ground was really important for us as well.”

“He has this ability to take the ball through the corridor to run and carry the ball, which we haven’t been doing much of the last few weeks.”

 “We haven’t had that many running bounces and people breaking the lines so he adds that to our side.”

Dempsey gathered ten disposals after being subbed into the game mid way through the third quarter.

Thompson said the 24-year-old would be better for his first match and being able to reacquaint himself with the intensity of the AFL standard.

“It looked like he hadn’t played when he first got on the ground,” Thompson joked.

“I thought he was ok after the first five or ten minutes where he just didn’t know what was coming,”

“He has just done the right thing in the last four weeks and he played VFL for a few games before that so it wasn’t as if he hadn’t played.”