Essendon Football Club CEO Xavier Campbell says the Bombers are “very lucky” to have appointed Dan Richardson as their new General Manager of Football.

Richardson enters The Hangar after spending nearly five years at Richmond including this year’s drought-breaking premiership season.

“Dan was someone we’d targeted,” Campbell told SEN on Monday night.

“Obviously he’s had a pretty successful career at the Tigers and more broadly as a sports administrator and player manager.”

Campbell said Richardson’s appointment was yet another step towards ensuring the club can launch a strong premiership assault in the near future.

“I’ve known Dan for a decent period of time now and watched him from afar, so we’re very lucky to get the position to add someone of his quality and calibre to the football club in 2018,” he said.

“It does feel like we’ve certainly got the key spots to a point where it’s put us in a position to really challenge now.”

The CEO also spoke about his upcoming meeting with coach John Worsfold in February, in which the two will discuss Worsfold’s future at the club.

Campbell was impressed with the coach’s first two years at Essendon after walking into a difficult job for the club’s disrupted 2016 season, and said the contract talks had only been delayed due to the pair’s busy schedule.

“He was really focussed on coaching and bringing that group together, and we’ve been focussed on broader club initiatives off field,” Campbell said.

“I feel very comfortable with the work that John and his coaching group have done, so I look forward to that discussion early next year.”

Campbell said the pre-season was “going really well” and that the club’s exciting trio of recruits – Jake Stringer, Adam Saad and Devon Smith – had all been impressive on the track.

“I know Jake’s had an immediate impact already, Adam’s been fantastic and Devon definitely adds something different to what we’ve got running through our midfield,” he said.

“All in all, we’re really comfortable (with) where things are at, but we know we’ve got a lot of hard work in front of us.”