Essendon youngster Nick O’Brien is enthusiastic about the current pre-season as he prepares to enter his second year of football at the top level.

O’Brien, taken at pick 59 in last year’s national draft, said the chance to prepare for the upcoming season after spending twelve months at the club was an exciting prospect.

“I am feeling pretty good, you get back to pre-season and are a lot more comfortable at this time of year,” O’Brien said.

“We all know how long a year it is and November is certainly not reflective of anything until you get out on the park in the season.”

The 19-year-old from North Ballarat played two games during his first season at the Bombers and looks forward to building on that in 2013.

“To sneak a couple of games in at the end of the year was something I was really happy with but there is obviously a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to get there.”

“A major support has been through the VFL with Hayden Skipworth and the amount of work he has done with me has been great.”

O’Brien paid tribute to Essendon’s current coaching group in particular the development coaches at the club.

“There are so many avenues to get better at your footy and you can learn something new off everyone,” he said.

“The wealth and knowledge that we have among our coaching staff has to be up there among the best in the league I would have thought.”

“That is an aspect that the new draftees are going to relish when they get here.”