The fresh talent in the Essendon forward line has Cale Hooker excited about what the group can achieve over the next few years.
The All-Australian defender has spent most of his last 16 games in attack and has booted 31 goals in the period.
He’s part of a new look forward line that also features Joe Daniher, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and Orazio Fantasia.
“I’m really enjoying it. I love working with Joe, Raz, Walla and all the young guys down there,” Hooker said.
“I’ve been teaching them a little bit and they’ve been teaching me a lot too, so I’ve been loving it and we’re only going to get better and better as a forward line.
“We are going to cause a lot of headaches for the opposition over the next few years.”
Hooker said he’s relishing his time in attack after spending his first eight years as an AFL player in defence.
“I sleep a bit better the night before the game, I don’t have to worry about a bag getting kicked on me,” he said.
“In all seriousness I’ve really been enjoying the group. We have a young group down there and a really exciting group
“For me personally, I feel better and better each week. In the last few weeks I’ve really felt like I’m starting to find my legs and build into the season.
“We’re starting to build a bit of chemistry so it will be exciting over the next few weeks and the rest of the season.
“Coming back was a great unknown, we didn’t know exactly how we’d go, but I’m super excited about how we’ve come back and some of the footy we’ve played really excites us.
“We know we can compete with the best.”
Essendon will fly to Western Australia on Saturday for their round seven clash with Fremantle.
“It’s always a big challenge heading over to Perth to play Freo. They are obviously a very good side,” he said.
“We have seven days (turnaround) this week so that will certainly help. The mood around the group and the way we trained today, I’m pretty confident heading into the game.”
The Bombers have started the season with three wins and three losses, including last Sunday’s defeat to Melbourne.
“I think sometimes when you lose you learn more so we’ve had a few great learning experiences,” Hooker said.
“We are three and three, we’d like to be a better win-loss but we’ll take that. I think a lot of the teams are probably in the same boat.
“If we can get it more consistent then we are going to be a really good team.
“I think it’s really important the way we play, not the result.
“We have a few things we learnt on the weekend, if we can fix them up it’ll be a good show. It’s more about how we are playing rather than just purely wins and losses.”
