{"id":352806,"date":"2023-12-09T11:05:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T12:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=352806"},"modified":"2023-12-10T01:04:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T01:04:19","slug":"fresh-ideas-and-faces-head-intense-dons-pre-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=352806","title":{"rendered":"'Fresh ideas and faces' head intense Dons pre-season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon Bombers<\/a> captain Zach Merrett<\/a> has said that his midfield will need to make sacrifices next season to ensure the development of promising young talent.<\/p>\n

With several exciting recruits and budding youngsters hitting the park for match simulation on Saturday, the Bombers are hoping to turn things around after missing the finals in 2023.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the club's inaugural 'Member Fest', Merrett said the club was buzzing.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Unacceptable' treatment of F1 power couple blasted<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Russian, Belarusian athletes learn fate for Paris 2024<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/p>\n

\ufeff"It feels, not new, but it feels like we've got some really good stability across the board but also some fresh ideas [and] some fresh faces," he told media on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Merrett \ufeffobserved how some of the squad's young guns had bulked up during a self-funded, high-altitude training camp in the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"I think we've been \ufeffusing filters on our Instagram for some of those boys," Merrett joked.<\/p>\n

"[Elijah Tsatas], I think he's put \ufeffon five or six kilos \u2014 you can see it across his whole body.<\/p>\n

"I'm also super excited by \ufeffhow [Sam] Durham has returned. He looks really strong."<\/p>\n

To get the most out of the side, Merrett \ufeffacknowledged that his experienced midfield will need to make room.<\/p>\n

"It'll definitely be me as well\ufeff. We're definitely going to have to give and take," he said.<\/p>\n

"I think we've got \ufeffprobably six to eight guys that we want to be elite players and I think we need to give the space to those guys to grow."<\/p>\n

\"McKay<\/p>\n

Entering his second year as coach, Brad Scott<\/a> also forecasted several \ufeffpositional changes, especially in defence to create more running defender roles.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffWe're certainly looking at some options to provide a bit more bounce out of our back half," he said.<\/p>\n

Scott also highlighted a "less talk and more action" approach \ufeffto the team's future, with 2024 marking 20 years since the club's last finals victory.<\/p>\n

"We are focusing on the things we need to improve on to get where we need to go," he said.<\/p>\n

"We really focus, with our goals, on the actions and behaviours we need to achieve our vision.<\/p>\n

"So we don't have explicit goals like we want to win X amount of games or finish in a certain place as that takes the players to focus on an outcome they can't completely control. So we focus strongly on what we can control and break that down into tiny segments.<\/p>\n

"We will be asked repeatedly what are our goals and where we think we will finish, but I'm not in the prediction business, I'm in the action business.<\/p>\n

"I think it's important for all our members to understand where I'm coming from. You might agree or disagree, but I think less talk and more action will make our members much happier in the long run."<\/p>\n

\"Bombers<\/p>\n

Ruckman Sam Draper \ufeffcompleted his third running session since undergoing groin surgery in September.<\/p>\n

He is expected to reintegrate into training with the main group in the New Year. \ufeff<\/p>\n

After battling a persistent groin injury at the back end of what was an injury-riddled 2023 for the 25-year-old, Draper said he wants to get his body right before setting a return date.<\/p>\n

"Round one is achievable but I don't want to put too much pressure on it. I want \ufeffto be 100 per cent and feel good for the whole season," he said.<\/p>\n

"So, we'll see when that is but definitely aiming for round one." \ufeff<\/p>\n

Veteran recruit Todd Goldstein is the most obvious choice to step in should Draper be deemed unavailable at the start of next year's campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essendon Bombers captain Zach Merrett has said that his midfield will need to make sacrifices next season to ensure the development of promising young talent. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":352808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352812,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352806\/revisions\/352812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/352808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}