Essendon Football Club coach John Worsfold says there will be an emphasis on defensive play throughout the team’s pre-season.

While the Bombers were one of the best attacking sides in the league last season, the team struggled at times in defence.

“We were a very good scoring team last year – we need to maintain that and that will still be a focus – but we need to improve our defence,” Worsfold said.

“To be a premiership team, we need to improve that a fair bit.”

Worsfold said training had kicked off with a high intensity and he was impressed by the condition of his players after the off-season as well as their ability to cope with the workload.

“We hit the ground running pretty much flat out straight away,” he said.

“The players were ready to go when they got back and that is showing on the training track.”

Captain Dyson Heppell was also happy with the way the team has returned to the track.

“We certainly started the contested work quite early and the boys are having a good crack and really enjoying our training at the moment,” Heppell said.

With several impressive young leaders pushing through the ranks in the team, the skipper said it was important for all players to share the load after former captain Jobe Watson’s retirement.

“We’ve got a great array of young leaders throughout the club and we’re really driving for those young boys to stand up and lead the way,” he said.

One of those leaders is 2017 NAB AFL Rising Star winner Andrew McGrath, and Heppell warned that the speedy second-year player had returned impressively. 

“I think he’s picked up his game again to another level, so I’m excited to see what he can do this (coming) year.”