Travis Colyer has been impressed by the maturity of his younger teammates and is forecasting tough competition for spots in the side throughout the year.

The Bombers open the JLT Community Series against Collingwood next month.

Colyer said it had been pleasing to see the progress the Dons young stars had made over the last year.

“The maturity of them coming back in – obviously when you’re in a group where you’ve got an array of ages, a young kid who has that maturity and game knowledge really does stand out,” Colyer told SEN.

“They’ve really bought into their own careers and didn’t see last year as ‘I’m going to get a game because there is more opportunities’.

“They’re pushing us players coming back now and it’s exciting to be there.

“You're sort of looking and thinking ‘are we going to get a game’ and the depth of the squad is really impressive.”

Colyer said the improvement had made for a smooth transition back into full-time training.

“Obviously we’ve got the new draftees coming in as well, so you’ve got a fair amount of players coming back into a large squad who are all new to the system and the set-up and what happened in 2016,” he said.

“I’ve been really impressed by how (far) we’ve come and obviously how close we’ve been as a group of players that spent a year out, it’s just made it easier for us to slot back in.

“The willingness of the players and the staff to ask us questions (about) how we went and how we want to move forward has been fantastic.”

Colyer said the key motivation for this season and beyond will be repaying the faith of the Essendon family.

“The support of the fans, almost pushing up to 50,000 (members) has been fantastic so to give something back to them, the staff at the Club, the footy department and John (Worsfold) who obviously came in different circumstances, if you’re going to prove something it’s to them and the internal people of Essendon,” he said.

“We know how we’re tracking and we’ve got a plan and a vision as to where we hopefully want to get to in the next three to five years.

“The support we’ve had and having them (the fans) around the Club was almost a little overwhelming and it was just really nice to get back involved and have that purpose again with our training and our football.”