Former East Fremantle ruckman Lachlan Blakiston has scored a victory before the season\u2019s even started after putting pen to paper on a two-year extension at Essendon.<\/p>\n
Blakiston headed east after being picked up in the 2025 AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft before debuting in Round 14 at the MCG against Geelong.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old went on to play 11 games as a key defender to round out the season.<\/p>\n
However, with the departure of Sam Draper to Brisbane, Blakiston, who stands at 203cm, is likely to get more time around the ball in the ruck position.<\/p>\n
During the Bombers\u2019 AAMI Community Series clash with St Kilda, Blakiston produced 16 disposals and 21 hit-outs while combating Saints\u2019 stars Tom De Koning and Rowan Marshall.<\/p>\n
Blakiston said he was \u201cgrateful\u201d to be able to remain a Bomber until at least 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m absolutely wrapped to get the opportunity to continue to stay at the Club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve loved my time here, so to get this contract extension is so exciting, and it really is a dream come true.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still can\u2019t believe it. This time last year, I couldn\u2019t imagine now being here at Essendon, so I\u2019m just super grateful to have the opportunity to continue to represent the Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essendon\u2019s General Manager of List and Recruiting, Matt Rosa, who previously worked for Peel Thunder, who came up against Blakiston in the WAFL, said the ruckman added versatility to the list.<\/p>\n
\u201cLachie has come in and made a really strong impression in a short period of time,\u201d Rosa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe showed great versatility for us last year, and we loved the way he has embraced the opportunity to play in defence after being identified as an emerging ruckman in the WAFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think Lachie has plenty of growth in his game, so we are very excited to secure him for the next couple of years and look forward to seeing what he can produce.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former East Fremantle ruckman Lachlan Blakiston has scored a victory before the season\u2019s even started after putting pen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,588,85,36052],"class_list":["post-519831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-wafl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519831","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=519831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}