Throughout the late stages of 2016, Essendon’s centre bounce starters were often made up of Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish and Kyle Langford.

The trio boasted just six AFL seasons between them, but given the nature of the Bombers year, were called on to take extra responsibility.

It’s unclear how often that trio will line-up in the middle this year, but when they do Midfield Performance Coach Guy McKenna knows they’ll be better prepared.

McKenna is enjoying seeing the young players that carried so much of the load last year; compete against the seasoned returning players.

“Darcy Parish as a second year player now and Kyle Langford who is spending a lot more time in the midfield now get to muscle up against ‘Myersy’ and Jobe and Dyson Heppell and Travis Colyer,” McKenna said.

“It is a win-win situation for us.”

Among the group of returning players are proven contested ball winners Jobe Watson, Dyson Heppell, Heath Hocking, Ben Howlett and David Myers.

“The immediate coaching those boys are able to give Darcy Parish, Kyle Langford and even David Zaharakis – who is an 8-10 year player – but has really only spent one full season playing inside for us last year because he had to,” McKenna said. 

“The beauty about the big tractors coming back in is those lighter fellas - Darcy, even ‘Junior’ Merrett … instead of putting his head in the trough all the time, he can get some ball on the outside and really hurt the opposition.” 

McKenna has two draftees, Kobe Mutch and Dylan Clarke, training with his midfield group. 

Mutch has had a slight groin niggle that has been closely monitored. 

Clarke, and top pick Andrew McGrath (who is training with the defenders), are the draftees who have got through the biggest training load so far. 

But they’re still some way off matching last year’s draftees, including Parish – who played a key role in the Dons midfield throughout 2016 in the absence of so many key players.

“Even compared to what Darcy Parish did last year, it’s about 50 per cent of the workload, just to give you a comparison,” McKenna said.

The draftees will have a chance to impress over the next few weeks as the Club incorporates more match practice into its training schedule.