Mitch Brown will make his return to football this weekend, in Essendon VFL’s game against the reigning premiers, Footscray.
The former Cat has been restricted to four AFL and two VFL games this season, because of two significant ankle injuries.
VFL Performance coach, Dan Jordan, said Brown’s game time will be closely monitored.
“He will return from a long layoff due to injury,” Jordan said.
“That changes the look of the side in the back-half.
“Mitch is on limits, he will only play around 7.5 – 8 kilometres. I’d say we will probably enter him into the game after quarter time and get him to play out the game.
“Hopefully he can get through and we can build him up to a full game next week.
“Mitch has attacked his rehab really well and is back a week earlier than projected so that’s a credit to him.”
The Bombers have made several changes to their side. Matt Dea and Brent Stanton will return, and VFL listed player, James Ferry has also been named to face the Dogs.
The inclusions in the Dons line up will be handy when taking on the pace of the Footscray line up.
The Dogs are in fourth place on the ladder, with ten wins under their belt.
“They have been mostly consistent, they are another top four side and the reigning premiers and they seem to be hitting form at the right time,” Jordan said.
“It will be a tough game. They play a really good brand of footy, they’re exciting and they will test what we bring to the table.
“They’re in good form and like us, they will be keen to finish off the year in a consistent manner and hit the finals with some good momentum behind them.
“If we get the result, then we can potentially push for a top-four position in the following week.
“We will be out to get the result that we need.”
The last time the two sides met was in round eight at VU Whitten Oval. This weekend the Dons will have the home ground advantage.
“It’s probably the shape and size of Windy Hill that differs from VU Whitten Oval,” Jordan said.
“It is conducive to a more contested brand of footy. Footscray like to use their open space and run and win the ball on the outside.
“We will be hoping to play our contested style and Footscray will, no doubt, be hoping to play their free-flowing style.
“Windy Hill is our VFL base so the guys seem to play a little bit better there but it is very much a 50/50 game and whoever executes their game-plan the best, will win the game.”
Essendon is coming off back-to-back wins over top eight sides, Collingwood and Box Hill.
Jordan said they are hoping to carry that momentum into the rest of the season.
“We did have the bye in between the two games, but certainly last week’s win gave us some really good momentum, over a really quality side,” he said.
“We are hoping to continue the way we played in the final three quarters of that game and translate that into this game.
“We are up against another quality opposition, so it will be good to see if we can build a really good platform near the backend of the season.”
Although the Bombers claimed victories over the Pies and Hawks, Jordan said there are still areas of the game the side can develop.
“We need to improve on our starts. We have started poorly in the last few games and given sides a head start, and had to do some really hard work to claw them in,” Jordan said.
“I’m sure that will be a focus for us this week.
“We want to play a consistent brand of football week in, week out, regardless of who the opposition is.
“If we do that to the best of our ability, we are confident we can get the result.”
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