{"id":355420,"date":"2025-12-18T05:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355420\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T05:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:18:10","slug":"backed-by-data-essendons-gruelling-pre-season-marks-bombers-reboot-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355420\/","title":{"rendered":"“Backed by data”: Essendon\u2019s gruelling pre-season marks Bombers reboot – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Essendon’s new high-performance team has already seen major changes “backed by data” as the players endure a gruelling pre-season.<\/p>\n

The Bombers “heavily invested” in their football department, making wholesale changes that ended with respected figures Mathew Inness and David Regan joining the club.<\/p>\n

The move was inspired by the club’s unprecedented amount of injuries throughout 2025, resulting in a record 15 debutants and 44 players used.<\/p>\n

“Off field, we’ve strengthened our football department,” president Andrew Welsh said at the club’s 2025 AGM.<\/p>\n

“This includes Mathew Inness (Head of high performance) and David Regan (S&C coach), which I know from talking to many of the players. This has had a significant impact on them already, in the quality and intensity of pre-season.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

“We’ve heavily invested in our football department to enhance development, strengthened our high-performance environment and given our coaches every tool available to take this list forward.”<\/p>\n

Essendon GM of Football Dan McPherson provided more context on the changes to the training program implemented by Innes and Regan.<\/p>\n

“They’ve brought renewed confidence to the playing group,” Dan McPherson said.<\/p>\n

“The training, since we’ve got back, has been at an unbelievable level. We’ve got great numbers on the track, which is a great sign and a great starting point, which then allows the coaches to add layers on top of how we train.<\/p>\n

“You would’ve noticed that there’s a lot more speed, a lot more intent. Everything is done with great purpose.<\/p>\n

“The sessions don’t go as long as they have normally been going last pre-season, but the amount of work the players are getting in, particularly in the high level and high speed volume, is significantly different to last year.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

“That’s backed up by the data. The last three weeks, we’ve had the highest speed volume in our training that we’ve had in the last two years.<\/p>\n

“The guys are getting a lot of good quality work in, without having to be out on the track for three or four hours at a time.”<\/p>\n

The new era at Essendon will also be headed by a new captain, with Andrew McGrath stepping into the role<\/a> following Zach Merrett’s decision to stand down.<\/p>\n

McGrath assumes the position after Merrett’s failed attempt to depart for Hawthorn in the trade period.<\/p>\n

The Bombers also announced McGrath’s support staff, with\u00a0Kyle Langford<\/a>,\u00a0Mason Redman<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Nic Martin<\/a>\u00a0shaping the extended leadership group.<\/p>\n

Emerging duo\u00a0Sam Durham<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jye Caldwell<\/a>\u00a0have been recognised as future leaders and have been added to support McGrath, as has recruit\u00a0Brayden Fiorini<\/a>, who has impressed since crossing from Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Angus Clarke<\/a> signed a two-year extension until the end of 2028 after an impressive debut season. He played 14 games in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon’s new high-performance team has already seen major changes “backed by data” as the players endure a gruelling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-355420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355420","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=355420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}