7am \u2013 Rise and Shine.<\/p>\n
Tom Edwards\u00a0is the first through the doors of the NEC Hangar as Essendon officially begins its first day of pre-season training.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For most of the playing group however \u2013 Edwards included – it still feels like business as usual.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These halls have been well accustomed to the sound of weights hitting the floor and tunes blaring for much of the last two months, with a large contingent of Dons utilising the facilities to get ahead in their off-season programs.<\/p>\n
Despite only the Club\u2019s first-to-fourth year players being required at Monday\u2019s session, close to the entire playing list is on deck, the walls bearing a palpable excitement that only grows with each player entry.<\/p>\n
Continuing his rehab journey, Nic Martin is one of the first on deck – the running joke amongst staff is a question of whether the star 23-year-old actually lives in the Club gym, an indication of how he\u2019s attacking a return to play next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Archie Roberts\u00a0is another in early \u2013 the third-year Don is often the first to arrive for every gameday (usually at least three hours before bounce) and his approach to pre-season doesn\u2019t differ.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Plenty of roommates and close duos such as Angus Clarke\u00a0and Rhys Unwin arrive with a fair share of banter being flung around.<\/p>\n
Andy McGrath\u00a0returns only a week removed from a special Hayman Island wedding, one celebrated with a stack of Bombers in attendance including Senior Coach Brad Scott.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that Jayden Nguyen\u00a0walks in alongside McGrath \u2013 the 27-year-old\u2019s mentorship has played a key role in the Rookie\u2019s development over the last 12 months and even before that as a graduate of the James Hird Academy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
8am \u2013 Welcome\/Welcome Back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Screenings and physio testing follow for the boys, who have breakfast available upstairs as they rotate between their groups.<\/p>\n
For some, it\u2019s a welcome catch up after respective holidays and family time over the break \u2013 for others such as the rehab group toiling away in the gym early, it\u2019s another day at the office.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s around this time that some of the players get their chance to acquaint with some key new faces in their footy program, with inclusions such as Mat Inness\u00a0(Head of High Performance and Medical) and Dave Regan (Senior Strength and Conditioning Coach) on hand in the gym.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair have been a presence within the four walls in the short period of time since beginning in their roles, growing attached to the wider footy department in preparation for an important pre-season for the Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n
9am \u2013 The Agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brad Scott addresses all present in the first team meeting.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a quick, sharp meeting agenda with the new faces confirmed \u2013 formal introductions are being saved for when the full group is back on Monday, November 24 – but the tone of unconditional competitiveness and care for each other is clear from the outset.<\/p>\n
Scott gives an overview of the drills awaiting the group, reaffirming to the first-to-fourth year players that a two-kilometre time trial is staring them in the face to kick off the opener.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Scott is also quick in noting the rule changes for 2026 and ensuring his players are across them. As the pre-season gets going, Scott wants the squad to\u00a0have become used to those changes by the time match play rolls around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before hitting the track, defender Zach Reid\u00a0chats to the media for a first chat since the conclusion of last campaign.<\/p>\n
Reid opened 2025 in splendid fashion (second place in the Crichton Medal after 10 rounds) and will be keen to channel that career-best form into the 2026 season under the Bombers\u2019 new conditioning staff.<\/p>\n
10am \u2013 The Runners.<\/p>\n
Despite having put on some size since his blistering run in last year\u2019s time trial, Angus Clarke again puts the foot down to start strong and set the tone on day one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This time, he\u2019s trying to mow down Dons VFL signing and former Blue Jaxon Binns, who makes a strong impression to hold on for top spot despite Clarke\u2019s strong finish to close out the time trial,\u00a0with\u00a0Clarke even beating his elite time from the previous season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The senior Dons not involved in the run are very vocal from the middle of the park in their respective drills \u2013 shouts of \u201cGet him, Pup!\u201d are heard from afar for every metre gained by Clarke in the run home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roberts, Saad El-Hawli, Archer Day-Wicks, Elijah Tsatas\u00a0and Jayden Nguyen\u00a0are other clear improvers who aren\u2019t too far behind, impressing in their respective runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
10:30am \u2013 The Trainers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the groups now merged, it\u2019s straight into footy again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zach Reid\u00a0is composed, agile and distributing typically well from the last line, with El-Hawli, Roberts and Mason Redman\u00a0also involved off half back.<\/p>\n
Jordan Ridley\u00a0also looks as slick and creative as we\u2019ve come to expect in defence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a frustrating run with injury this year and an eventual season-ending surgery on his syndesmosis back in July, Jye Caldwell\u00a0is notably in good touch and has started his pre-season at full fitness in a huge boost for the Club\u2019s midfield stocks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After coming into 2025 as a ruck-forward, Kayle Gerreyn\u00a0is posted in key defence and continuing his progression as a multi-position prospect, spending plenty of time with fresh Assistant Coach Dean Solomon as the former Bomber takes the helm of team defence.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a welcome sight to see Nik Cox\u00a0active in the full training program to kick off pre-season, the 200cm utility moving well around the ground as the Club continues its cautious approach for his first sessions back in the mix.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New recruit Brayden Fiorini\u00a0is lively around his new teammates \u2013 the 28-year-old only just (mostly) finishing sorting his family\u2019s move from the Gold Coast in recent days and acclimatising to a return home to Victoria.<\/p>\n
Archie May, Kyle Langford\u00a0and Peter Wright\u00a0are key targets ahead of the ball throughout the sessions.<\/p>\n
Nate Caddy\u00a0and Matt Guelfi\u00a0get involved in early ball movement but run laps during the more intense full-ground drills as the pair ease back into full schedules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sam Durham is another who is mostly running laps and doing sprint work throughout these sessions, similarly integrating back into uninterrupted training.\u00a0<\/p>\n
12:30 \u2013 Gym, wrap up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Post-lunch break, it\u2019s back to the gym for weights sessions and massages to close out the first morning back on track.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s timings are split by lines, with defenders in the weight room first prior to any other required treatment before they finish at around 2:30pm.<\/p>\n
Even then, you\u2019ll find plenty of the youngsters in virtually every corner, whether it\u2019s Vigo Visentini, Kako and Unwin shooting hoops or groups of players hanging out in the Jack Jones Caf\u00e9 for a feed and a yarn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Dons\u2019 next main training session will be on Wednesday morning, continuing the first block of pre-season training which will run up until December 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7am \u2013 Rise and Shine. Tom Edwards\u00a0is the first through the doors of the NEC Hangar as Essendon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-275697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}