Young Essendon midfielder Andrew McGrath says he has returned to The Hangar a “stronger and faster” player after a productive off-season.

While the 20-year-old certainly hasn’t lacked any pace in his short career to date, he says a plan to bulk up over the break has yielded good results ahead of the 2019 season.

“Over the off-season I wanted to put on a bit of weight and I’ve done that,” McGrath said on Wednesday.

“I’ve come back and I feel a little bit stronger and faster – that was one of my goals.”

McGrath is feeling refreshed after an extended break and some time away, but he said there was still a significant workload on his plate to ensure he could hit the ground running for the long preparation for next year.

“We’ve had a long break, so I think a lot of the boys are ready to come back and start the hard work.

“We ended up having a little bit longer because the VFL team played so well in the finals, so we ended up having about 10 weeks off, which was really nice,” he said.

“I got away to New Zealand for two weeks with my girlfriend and really enjoyed that, but there was a lot of training involved in the six weeks prior to that.

“It was a good break – a good, relaxing period of time – but there was a lot of hard work to be done as well.”

McGrath is hopeful of spending more time on the ball in 2019 after shifting there from the backline in his second season this year, but he is expecting some fierce competition for the lucrative midfield spots, particularly with the addition of former Giant Dylan Shiel.

“We’ve got a quality player in like Dylan Shiel so I might push out to a wing a little bit more sometimes, but the AFL industry is brutal and if you want to get in there you’ve got to push someone out.

“So that’s what I’ll be aiming to do and a lot of the younger boys will as well.”

McGrath said he “can’t wait” to meet Shiel and have the new Bomber by his side when the remainder of the playing group returns to training on Monday.

“I haven’t actually met him yet, but from all I’ve heard he’s a great person, a great player and a great person to have at the football club.

“I think we’ll get along really well and he’ll really drive our club in the right direction.”

A number of senior Bombers kicked off their pre-season ahead of schedule this week and McGrath says it is a sign of the squad’s commitment to improvement and success.

“It’s really promising, we’ve got a really committed group and we know where we want to get to and what to achieve.

“To have the likes of Orazio (Fantasia), Michael Hartley and Patty Ambrose out there with us really drives that training standard and leads the way and shows what type of people they are and the type of people that are in our group.”