ESSENDON will bring a near full-strength line-up to the QEO on Friday for its clash with North Melbourne, as the Bombers step up preparations for round one.
Coach Matthew Knights said the club was treating the NAB Challenge match as a dress rehearsal for the home-and-away season.
The match has been brought forward to 4.30pm, as lighting at the QEO does not meet AFL standard.
“We’ll be bringing 24 players up, and they’ll be our best 24 players available,” Knights said in Bendigo on Monday, after playing in the celebrity-business match on the QEO turf.
“We’re getting very close to round one now and this will be the last hit out we have before that, so we’re treating it as a full dress rehearsal.’’
Only Mark McVeigh, Brent Prismall, Andrew Welsh and Jason Laycock will be missing from the Bombers’ line-up, all because of injury.
Knights said Bendigo could expect fireworks from the Bombers’ young guns, as they display the explosive pace that is likely to be a feature of their game this season.
“We’ll be knuckling down to the style we want to play, and for the Bendigo community it’s going to be something that’s good to watch,” he said.
“We are one team in the AFL that can play an exciting and up tempo style of football, so that’s what we’ll look to do on Friday.
“And the Kangaroos have been one of the stronger sides over the past three or four years, so testing ourselves against them playing that style of play is something that’s going to be a good challenge.”
Speed demons such as Alwyn Davey, Leroy Jetta, Courtenay Dempsey, Jason Winderlich and Andrew Lovett form only a small part of Essendon’s young player stocks at the forefront of what Knights calls a “transitional phase” at the club.
“We’ll be a very young side, apart from those three legends in Matthew Lloyd, Scott Lucas and Dustin Fletcher,” Knights said.
“Sam Lonergan is on the way up, he’s starting to forge a career as a midfielder and that’s really exciting.
“Jay Neagle and Scott Gumbleton will start to come up as key forwards.
“We’d like Lloyd and Lucas to play forever, but we also know they won’t be able to.
“And Michael Hurley, our first round draft pick last year, is also coming along well, so it will certainly be an interesting season from that side of things.”
Central Victorian Football chief executive officer Steven Oliver said he would discuss the QEO lighting situation with the City of Greater Bendigo council next week.
“The lights haven’t met the minimum standards, essentially that’s why it has been moved to an earlier start time,” Oliver said.
“We’ve got to re-do rosters, work with volunteers, and obviously it will make it harder for working people, but we were left with basically two options, either move the game forward or cancel it.
“They tell me 4.30pm starts in Mildura (for similar AFL practice matches) have worked well, so, hopefully, we can still get a good crowd.”
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