New assistant coach Matthew Egan says the hard work on the training track is starting to pay off for Essendon’s playing group.
Since arriving at the club from Geelong a month ago, Egan said he has noticed a large improvement with the list in that time.
“It has been really interesting to see the improvement and development on the training track already in the time I’ve been with the club,” Egan said.
“I am absolutely loving the move from Geelong to Windy Hill.
“The boys have been terrific and the coaching group is young and enthusiastic. It has been really good fun so far.”
Egan, who played 59 games for Geelong at centre-half back, believes his football experience both on and off the field will benefit the Bombers’ young list.
“I only played for three years in the end with Geelong (due to injury), but I’ve got my experiences from both playing and being injured so I can bring different thoughts in injury management and playing on good players and being at a successful football club in Geelong.”
Playing under former Geelong senior coach Bomber Thompson from 2005-2009, Egan said he was looking forward to being reunited with Thompson at Essendon in a coaching capacity.
“When playing, I found Bomber really motivating on game day,” he said.
Since arriving at the club from Geelong a month ago, Egan said he has noticed a large improvement with the list in that time.
“It has been really interesting to see the improvement and development on the training track already in the time I’ve been with the club,” Egan said.
“I am absolutely loving the move from Geelong to Windy Hill.
“The boys have been terrific and the coaching group is young and enthusiastic. It has been really good fun so far.”
Egan, who played 59 games for Geelong at centre-half back, believes his football experience both on and off the field will benefit the Bombers’ young list.
“I only played for three years in the end with Geelong (due to injury), but I’ve got my experiences from both playing and being injured so I can bring different thoughts in injury management and playing on good players and being at a successful football club in Geelong.”
Playing under former Geelong senior coach Bomber Thompson from 2005-2009, Egan said he was looking forward to being reunited with Thompson at Essendon in a coaching capacity.
“When playing, I found Bomber really motivating on game day,” he said.
“At Geelong, during the week they would work a lot with the assistant coaches but on game day I found him unbelievable and he was clear and really motivating. There was a sense that you really wanted to play for him.
“I’m really looking forward to working alongside him now as an assistant coach.”
Egan said he was excited to work with the Bombers as the club looks to build on its improvement and development in the 2012 season.
“We finished 8th last year and it was probably disappointing with how that last game ended (against Carlton) so I hope we improve on last year and keep building,” he said.
“I’ll be focusing on our forward line, so I’ll be working with all the forwards during the week to hopefully kick some more goals throughout the season.”
Egan believes Essendon’s current midfield has the ability to carry the side to its next premiership, but said continued hard work and improvement across the board was still vital.
“We’ve still got a lot of learning to do but what I’ve found with our midfield so far is that they’re young and once they do learn a few more skills here and there, they’re only going to get better,” Egan said.
“The training intensity has to lift a little and I think it has so far even though we’ve only been training for two weeks.
“Once the boys have adapted to the training programs and the training side of things overall, I know they’re only going to lift and get better which is a really exciting prospect.”
