Essendon utility Brent Prismall says an elite midfield is the key to the club’s next premiership and is confident Essendon has the talent required to rival that of the competition's best sides in the coming years.

The 22-year-old spent time in one of the best midfield combinations of recent times during his three years at Geelong, and says Essendon’s growing list of midfielders could establish a similar reputation.
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“You would like to think we can grow into an elite midfield,” Prismall said. 
""We have a lot of blokes who can go through there now and that is one of the traits of good sides – they have six to eight players they can rotate through that area.
“We are beginning to develop some depth in that area now and we want our midfield group to step up and take the responsibility on themselves to really drive this team forward. It would be nice to say that we have a midfield group like the calibre of Geelong in a couple of years and I would like to be a part of that.“
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Prismall credits captain Jobe Watson for fast-tracking the midfield group’s development, saying his ability to lead by example and direct players makes him crucial to the team.

“Jobe has gone to a new level over the pre-season since being awarded the captaincy - his leadership and voice has been fantastic,” Prismall said.

“He leads by example with his work-rate and when you get to a stoppage, he is the first one that looks around and structurally sets us up. He is an important player for us and the more blokes that follow in his footsteps, the better we will be this year.”

Prismall continues to pay dividends to the Bombers after being traded to Windy Hill for selection 39 and was named among Essendon’s best players after finding plenty of the ball in the club’s pre-season opener.

However, the former Western Jet says there are still a number of deficiencies that he and the club will look to correct before his battle with his former side in Round 1 of the 2010 season.

“I think most of the players were pleased with 40 minutes of our play and then after that it was pretty disappointing. I sort of judged my own performance on that as well. I thought I was good for maybe half an hour but after that it wasn’t good enough,” he said.

“We get another chance in a couple of weeks and hopefully we can fix all our deficiencies from the other night before Round 1.”
See Brent Prismall and his team-mates presented with his official 2010 guernsey at the season launch on March 16 at Etihad Stadium. Click here to book your seat.