Essendon swingman Michael Hurley is set to be an important weapon for the Bombers heading into their first finals campaign in since 2011.

With Jake Carlisle to miss Saturday night’s clash against North Melbourne due to a hamstring injury Hurley could provide an important option up forward.

He has proven in recent weeks his ability to swing from one end of the ground to have an impact on the scoreboard.

Senior assistant coach Simon Goodwin is predicting Hurley’s performance to have a significant bearing on how deep the Bombers can go into September.

“There is definitely some opportunity for him to go forward as we know what he can do when he goes down there,” Goodwin said.

“He has the ability to impact the scoreboard as we saw a couple of weeks ago and he is a weapon that we need up and firing in the finals.”

Goodwin said midfielder David Myers had stepped up throughout the season in particular in terms of his leadership capabilities.

“David Myers in terms of his leadership and communication, he really took control of certain aspects of the team,” Goodwin said.

“He was elevated to our leadership group at the start of the season and he has continued to grow as a player but also as a leader.”

“We can see him developing into a really good AFL player.”

He said the development of the club’s midfield throughout the season was a pleasing sign for the future.

“The thing that we have been trying to do over the last three years is develop a midfield group that is not reliant on one or two players,” he said.

“We have been trying to get some depth through there by rotating ten to twelve players through that area most games this season.”

“When Jobe went down it was an opportunity for certain guys to step up in terms of their performance but also their leadership and communication.”

“Guys like Dyson Heppell, David Myers and Ben Howlett have really stood up and taken their games to the next level.”

Essendon had a stand out start to the season in Round 1 against North Melbourne with a convincing 39-point win.

“It was a long time ago, round 1 seems like last year almost and they are a different team now,” Goodwin said.

“They have changed some of the things they have done in their game in terms of having some midfielders that are no going forward and impacting the scoreboard.”

“We feel like we have some things in our game style that will challenge North Melbourne at times and they are the things that we are going to really focus in on.”